The Portal of Eternity
by Brownbug
Summary: Master/ Time Lady OC: "Haunted by the Fall of Gallifrey, Tejana tries to rebuild Torchwood with Jack. But Jack is badly damaged from the 456 incident and her beloved father, the Doctor, has regenerated into a stranger. Worst of all, like it or not, she's deeply grieving the loss of the Master. But something ancient and evil has returned and it will change everything." 2nd in series
1. Chapter 1

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_

_**Disclaimer****: I do not own Doctor Who or anything remotely related to it.**_

_**Warning****: This fic is a sequel to my previous story "One Moment in Time". If you haven't read that, this one probably won't make much sense to you.**_

_**Summary****: Tejana is now living on Earth, trying to put her life back together. Still haunted by the atrocities she witnessed at the Fall of Gallifrey, she is attempting to rebuild Torchwood with Jack. However, Jack is himself still badly damaged from the 456 incident and Tejana's beloved father, the Doctor, has regenerated into a stranger. Worst of all, whether she likes it or not, she is still deeply grieving the loss of the Master. But the destruction of Gallifrey has changed the balance of the Universe, and something ancient and unimaginably evil has returned, something which will change everything...**_

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**CHAPTER ONE**

It was almost Christmas again. Wilfred Mott stood in the street, watching the snowflakes drift down from the night sky, listening to the pure voices of the carol singers floating in the crystal clear air. The coloured lights strung around the shop fronts splashed festive patterns across the ground and the gaudy tinsel decorations sparkled and gleamed as they fluttered in the light breeze.

He thought of the Doctor. All these people rushing backwards and forwards, so busy with their last minute shopping – they had no idea that it was nearly a full year since that brave man had saved the entire Universe from annihilation.

Wilf removed his red woollen hat and wiped an errant tear from his eye, remembering it. He kept watch always, staring at the faces as they passed by, hoping against hope to see the one he longed for. But he never saw it and deep down he knew he never would again.

So lost was he in his memories, he almost missed the other familiar face. Almost, but not quite. Staring after the slender figure in the hooded blue anorak, his heart skipped a beat. It wasn't the Doctor, but it was a close second.

Then he was hurrying as fast as his old legs could carry him. For a moment, he thought she had been swirled away by the crowd, but then the people in front of him parted and he saw the blue jacket. Desperately, his breath coming in ragged puffs, he managed to reach out and catch her elbow.

"Tejana, wait! Oh, please wait!"

Disappointment sat heavily in his stomach as she turned to face him. It wasn't her, he had been mistaken. The woman who stared at him blankly, without recognition, had startlingly similar features, framed by the long black hair. But she was older, her face thin and pale, her eyes haunted.

However, all of a sudden, the blue eyes seemed to lock on to his face and sharpen.

"Wilf," she said. "Wilfred Mott."

"It is you," he whispered. "It really is."

She smiled faintly. "I see you haven't lost the knack for tracking down Time Lords. It's good to see you, Wilf. You're looking well."

"I wish I could say the same for you!" he blurted out. "You look so ill, so sad. What's happened? Is it the Doctor? Is he all right?"

"He's fine," she replied reassuringly. "Off travelling the stars, as usual."

"But you're not with him!"

Wilf hadn't meant the words to sound like an accusation, but somehow that's what they came out like.

Tejana looked away. "No, not this time," she answered, a thread of pain running through her tone.

Without stopping to think, Wilf took her arm. "Please, come into the caf and have a cuppa with me?"

At first, he thought she was going to refuse and disappear again as suddenly as she had come. But then her arm relaxed and she followed him meekly into the nearby Pablo's Cafe. With a pang, Wilf realised it was the same cafe in which the Doctor had sat with him a year ago and told him of his prophesied death.

Wilf got them a cup of tea each and sat down opposite her.

"He changed, didn't he?" he asked flatly, with no preamble. "After I saw him at Donna's wedding?"

She didn't pretend to misunderstand him. "He regenerated, yes."

The tears came again to his old eyes. "He said it would be like dying. He didn't want to go."

"It is, a little," Tejana nodded ruefully. "He _is _fine though, Wilf, I promise. His new incarnation is young, hugely energetic, talks a mile a minute, wears a bow tie. You'd like him."

"But you're not travelling with him?" Wilf said again, watching her closely.

"No," she repeated, once more not meeting his eyes. "He's not alone though. He has a new companion, Amy Pond. She keeps him in line, just like Donna used to."

"If it's like dying...and a new man walks away...it must be hard on you, to lose your father over and over again?" he asked shrewdly.

She gave a choked noise that was half a laugh and half a sob. "Are you asking if I'm grieving for Ten?"

"Ten?"

"It's how I refer to the Doctor's previous incarnations, by number, so it's easier to keep track," she explained. "The one you knew was number ten."

"You mean he's done this ten times?" Wilf exclaimed, aghast.

Tejana had to smile at his tone. "We're Time Lords, Wilf, it's what we do. Change is our only constant. And in answer to your question – yes, I do miss Ten, every single day. And yes, I do grieve for him, because I will never get him back and it will never be quite the same. That's what he meant when he said it was like dying."

Wilfred's face crumpled in sadness. "I'm so sorry, Tejana. It's my fault. He should have left me to die. I'm only an old man, worthless compared to him..."

"Sssssh," she hushed kindly. "Don't say that. You were worth everything to him, even his own life. He could never have done anything else, or he wouldn't have been Ten."

"We thought it was the Master, see?" Wilf cried. "The four knocks, we thought it was those drums in his head. But in the end, it was the Master who saved him and it was me that killed him!"

"Wilf, don't! Please don't blame yourself like this," she begged. "He isn't dead. All that he is and was, it's still there, just in a different form. And one day he will change again, that's just the way of the Time Lord."

"And the Master?" the old man asked fearfully. "He just disappeared that day. He won't ever come back, will he?"

To his surprise, he saw a flash of white-hot pain flare in her eyes, before the long lashes dropped to screen them from him.

"No, he won't come back," she answered tonelessly. "He died, on the Last Day of the Time War, fighting Rassilon."

"Oh, good-o, then," Wilf said, relieved he would never see the renegade Time Lord again. "Well, I mean...he was a pretty bad egg, though, wasn't he?"

Tejana smiled bitterly, her face suddenly weary. "Oh yes, a bad egg indeed."

Wilf frowned, sensing he was somehow close to the source of Tejana's pain and yet not believing it.

"You're never grieving for him too?" he demanded. "Never! I know he was one of your people, but after what he did? _Why_?"

At first he thought she was not going to reply. She stood and pulled her hood back over her head, clearly preparing to go back out into the snow. Wilf realised he had trespassed on forbidden ground.

"So many things should have been different, Wilf," she said finally. "So many."

Wilf climbed to his feet and followed her out into the wintry street.

"I'm sorry, Tejana," he called. "I'm just an old man, I didn't mean..."

"It's fine, really," she answered calmly, her expressionless mask back in place. "I don't know what it is about you, but you seem to have a talent for getting lonely Gallifreyans to open up to you. A dangerous thing, perhaps."

"It's my honour!" the old man replied proudly, remembering when the Doctor had used that same phrase, right before he absorbed the deadly radiation in Wilf's place. "Will you...will you remember me to the Doctor, when you see him?"

"Of course," she smiled. "That will be _my _honour."

And that was when she saw the man in black walk up behind Wilf and shove a gun in his ribs.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author's Note**:_

**_To Aietradaea and LiveLaughLoveListen, thank you both for your reviews. Hope I don't disappoint.  
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**CHAPTER TWO**

Before Tejana could react, someone took her arm and a rough voice muttered in her ear, "Come with us quietly or the old man dies, get it?"

"Oh, I get it," she retorted icily.

Without further ado, she and Wilf were escorted to the back of a transit van and were pushed unceremoniously inside, to be followed by the thug with the gun. The double doors slammed and the engine started, the van veering sharply away from the kerb into the London traffic.

"Where are you taking us?" Wilf demanded querulously.

Tejana felt proud of the old man. He was obviously afraid, but was determined not to show it.

"Shut up, Granddad," the thug snarled. "Or I'll put a bullet in you."

The Time Lady shook her head at Wilf, silently urging him to do what he was told until she could work out what was going on. Fortunately, he took the hint.

When the van finally stopped and the thug motioned for them to get out, they were in a large, empty, run-down old warehouse. None of it was familiar to Tejana.

They were ushered through a door into another smaller room, which appeared to have once been an office of some kind. Now it contained several rows of seats with a central aisle, running up the room to what appeared to be some sort of altar, draped in a red velvet cloth. Two plain black books rested on the altar and before it knelt a young girl, her head bowed reverently.

Tejana frowned, but before she could take in much more, she realised someone was coming forward to meet them. It was a slender black female with short hair, garbed simply in an ebony silk robe, trimmed in red around the neck and wrists.

"Your guests, High Priestess," one of the guards murmured, before falling back respectfully.

The Time Lady sighed inwardly. Just some kind of religious nut, that was all she needed. Jack was already going to be furious with her for disappearing without telling him where she was going. Ever since she had returned from Gallifrey, he had become ridiculously over-protective, hardly allowing her out of his sight, as if he was afraid she was going to vanish again without warning. Tejana put up with it patiently, knowing that it was a direct result of his grief at the deaths of his grandson, Stephen, and his lover, Ianto Jones. Jack was determined never to lose anyone he cared about again.

Every now and then though, she needed some time to herself and she slipped away for a while. On this occasion she had been gone for three days already, so she hated to think how angry he was going to be. This further delay was definitely an unwelcome development.

The woman came to a stop in front of Tejana, who eyed her curiously – somehow, this person looked familiar, if she could only remember where from...

"Welcome, Chosen One," the woman announced in ringing tones.

"Look, I think there's been some kind of mistake. My name is Anna Smith. This is my grandfather, Wilfred Mott, and we would like very much to go home now, please," Tejana said emphatically, trying to use her psychic energy to convince the woman they were harmless.

"Don't try my patience with your foolish games," the woman retorted arrogantly. "We know you are not human. We know you are of the same race as our Lord Master, and we honour you for it."

"_What?_" Tejana hissed, all her pretence falling away.

"The Master!" Wilfred exclaimed fearfully. "Tejana, I thought you said he was dead!"

"I did!" she snapped, glaring at the High Priestess.

"He will return. He has done so before. We are the Cult of Saxon, his true disciples," the woman intoned. "We watch and we wait. We never give up the faith."

Tejana relaxed again, her stomach inexplicably clenching in disappointment. So, just a crackpot, after all. For a moment she had thought...what? That the Master had pulled off yet another of his miraculous escapes, that he was here...?

She felt a wild urge to strike the woman standing before her. She spent so much time trying not to remember what had happened in The Matrix, it was far too painful. Instead, she had buried herself in her work for Torchwood, numbing the constant ache by keeping forever busy, avoiding the nightmares by avoiding sleep. Now this stupid, ignorant human was daring to remind her, daring to bring the memories all back...

"He's dead, he's not coming back! Your Secret Books of Saxon aren't going to change that this time!" she said harshly, gesturing towards the black volumes lying on the altar.

"Wait a minute," Wilf broke in, taking a step forward. "I know you. You're that Naismith girl, Joshua Naismith's daughter. You and your father are the ones who started all the trouble last Christmas."

"Ohhhhh!" Tejana nodded, understanding now why the woman seemed so familiar. The Doctor had shown her a psychic vision of the events in the Naismith mansion shortly before he had regenerated.

Her mouth twisted in contempt. "So you are one of the fools who thought you could control a Time Lord to gain eternal life. Haven't you learnt your lesson yet about messing with things you don't understand?"

The other woman's face suffused with anger. "We lost everything! My father is still in jail. I am only free due to our family connections. Our empire is in ruins. We under-estimated the Master. But I know he will return and so I have rebuilt the Cult of Saxon. This time I will be ready. This time I will have something he wants...you!"

"So...let me get this straight...," Tejana rolled her eyes heavenward. "You think that by handing me over to the Master, he will restore everything you have lost? Stars, you really _haven't _learnt anything from the last time, have you?"

Abigail Naismith smiled fiercely and turned back towards the altar, where she touched the kneeling girl on the shoulder. The girl had been so quiet, so motionless, that Tejana had almost forgotten she was there. Now she rose to her feet and turned to face them. She was young, in her early teens, with short brown curly hair and a plain, unremarkable face. But her most striking feature was her eyes – they were a peculiar milky white colour, her stare unwavering and unblinking, eerie in its intensity.

"This is Della," Abigail Naismith said, her tone almost gloating. "She is our Visionary, she sees the future. We know the Master will return, she has seen it."

Tejana felt the blood pounding in her temples. Why did she get all the nut-cases? She had totally had enough of this conversation. Besides, she had to get back to Cardiff before Jack did something drastic.

"Oh yeah?" she returned sarcastically.

The girl called Della fixed her opaque gaze directly on Tejana's face.

"You do not believe," she said in a husky monotone. "And yet you carry the Mark of the Master."

Tejana's entire body stiffened in shock, her thin face losing what little colour it possessed.

Frightened, Wilf touched her arm. "Tejana? What's she talking about? Tejana?"

"Guards!" Abigail ordered. "Expose the Mark."

Tejana began backing away. "No. Keep away from me. Don't touch me!"

"Do not force us to kill the old man!" Abigail snapped.

Tejana knew she had no choice. Eyes spitting fury, she allowed the guards to restrain her arms. Wilf watched miserably, not sure what was going on and unable to help.

One of the black-dressed guards bent to Tejana's right ankle and, in one swift movement, pulled up her trouser leg, exposing the skin beneath.

Wilf stared in horror. Marring the Time Lady's ankle was an awful, livid burn in the shape of a hand-print.

"Oh, my giddy aunt..." Wilf breathed. "Tejana, what _is _that?"

Abigail was exultant. "So it is true...the Mark of the Master!"

Wilf had never seen Tejana so angry, as though she had been violated in some way.

"How dare you?" she spat, her face contorted in rage. "How _dare _you!"

"He comes!" Della cried suddenly. "Trapped in the light that seeks only darkness, he returns. The three who remain must stand as one in the Portal of Eternity, lest the Universe and all within it fall into shadow forever more..."

"What the _hell _is that supposed to mean?" Tejana bit out.

But the visionary had fallen to her knees, muttering unintelligibly, repeating the words 'shadow' and 'darkness' over and over again.

Abigail Naismith merely smiled triumphantly. "I will have back everything that was taken from me. Now, I need only to wait. Guards, take them away!"

"He's not coming back!" Tejana screamed furiously. "You stupid woman, don't you understand? _HE...IS...NOT...EVER...COMING...BACK!_"

But Abigail simply turned away and the guards dragged Tejana and Wilf off to a small, windowless room, where they were locked in.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Author's Note****: **_

_**To The Six Paths Sage, thanks for your review. The Doctor will have loads of influence, once he turns up, I promise – bear with me ;0)**_

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**CHAPTER 3**

Tejana slid down the wall of their cell until she was sitting on the floor, her head in her hands, all the fight gone out of her.

Wilf hesitated for a moment and then went and sat next to her.

"Sylvia's not going to be too happy with me being this late home," he joked, trying to lighten the situation a bit.

"I'm sorry, Wilf," came her muffled voice. "Give it a couple of hours for things to settle down and I'll get us out of here."

"You can do that?" he asked, relieved.

"Sonic screwdriver," she replied succinctly.

"Of course," Wilf nodded, remembering the Doctor's marvellous device. "You've got one too then?"

"Yup."

"Oh..." he said again. He paused and then decided to jump in with both feet. "What's going on, Tejana? Why exactly are you so sad and ill-looking? What's that terrible mark on your leg?"

Tejana sighed. "It's a very long story."

"Seems like I've got time."

To his relief, she actually gave him a small smile in return. "I suppose, given the circumstances, you are entitled to hear it."

She settled herself a bit more comfortably, resting her head back against the wall, her eyes far away as she began to remember. Then she gave him a very brief, highly-simplified account of what had happened in The Matrix on the Last Day of the Time War.

"So that's how I know the Master isn't coming back, because I was there," she concluded bitterly. "The Doctor and I are truly the last of the Time Lords. The Master gave me the gift of life and yet some days I wish I'd died too – like him, like Gallifrey, like Ten, all gone now."

"Oh now, don't say that, don't ever say that!" Wilf protested. "The Doctor needs you, you mustn't give up."

"Live to fight another day, huh?" she replied sadly. "To save the Universe for idiots like this Naismith woman. No...I'm sorry, Wilf. Some days are just harder than others."

"The burn...the Mark of the Master," he said gently. "It never healed?"

"No."

"Does it hurt?"

"Always."

"Can't the Doctor...?"

Tejana just shook her head. How could she explain it to Wilf when she couldn't even explain it to herself? The Doctor had offered to get help to heal her leg so many times, but each time she refused. The burn was all she had left of the Master...somehow she just couldn't let it go. She was trapped in a paradox of her own making – she couldn't bear to remember and yet she couldn't bear to forget, every painful step she took serving her as a penance for leaving him behind.

Just then, without warning, the door of their cell was kicked in with tremendous force, startling them both. Standing in the opening stood a tall, handsome, well-muscled, dark-haired man in a World War II style great coat, holding a massive automatic weapon. He was flanked by two other men in army fatigues, also heavily armed.

Wilf was terrified, sure they were about to be mown down in a hail of bullets from this Terminator-like figure.

Tejana, calm as ever, merely rolled her eyes. "Hello, Jack."

"Are you OK?" the man demanded, his voice rich with an American accent.

"I'm fine," she replied tersely. "I didn't _need_ rescuing. And that entrance was a bit dramatic, even for you."

Jack shrugged good-naturedly. "Didn't know what I was dealing with."

"Wilf, this is my friend and self-appointed, over-protective guardian angel, Captain Jack Harkness. Jack, this is Donna Noble's grandfather, Wilfred Mott."

"Pleased to meet you," Jack said sincerely.

"Likewise!" Wilf answered, slowly getting his heart rate back under control.

"I was just about to break us out of here myself," Tejana complained, climbing to her feet and stretching. "You didn't need to come charging in here with a...is that a UNIT platoon?"

"Yep."

"Oh, great, so Martha is in on this too? Have you had me under surveillance or something?" she snapped.

Jack merely looked a bit sheepish, shifting uncomfortably from one foot to another.

"Jack?" she insisted sharply.

"Tracking device in the heel of your boot," he mumbled defensively.

Tejana's eyes blazed with anger. "Captain Harkness, I am well over five hundred years old. I do _not _need a baby-sitter."

With that, she stalked out of the room, still spitting imprecations. "Oh, of all the insufferable, arrogant, annoying idiots..."

Left alone with Wilfred, Jack levelled a cheeky wink at the old man. "Whew! That went a lot better than I thought it would!"

"Well, I don't mind saying thanks," Wilfred replied in a heartfelt voice. "I'm very glad you came."

"So, who is this lot then?"Jack asked. "The UNIT boys are rounding up the rest of them now."

"They call themselves the Cult of Saxon, apparently."

Jack's head spun around sharply, his eyes narrowing. "The Master!" he snarled, his pleasant voice suddenly full of bitter loathing.

"Met him too, then, have you?" Wilf asked, not particularly surprised by his reaction.

"Oh, yeah. We're old buddies!"

"Only, this Cult of Saxon seem to think he's coming back."

Jack's face was like thunder. "He'd better not," was all he said, his voice quiet and menacing.

Before either of them could say anything further, they heard the clack of Tejana's boot heels returning along the corridor.

"Well, come on then," she said snippily. "Standing around chatting like old women. I'd like to get home some time tonight."

Jack shot Wilfred a grin and saluted her teasingly. "Yes, Ma'am!"

Wilfred decided then and there that he liked Captain Jack very much.

They went back through the door, with Jack leading the way. Wilf was never quite sure what happened next, but there was a flash of movement up ahead and suddenly the air was filled with the deafening sound of gunfire. Just in front of him, Jack's body twisted into hideous spasms as the bullets struck him, red blood exploding from the wounds to splash luridly across the wall. Paralysed by horror, Wilf hardly felt Tejana seize him and pull him down flat to the floor. Jack collapsed beside him, gave one gurgling, choked moan and then went limp. The UNIT personnel immediately opened fire and the sniper was cut down before he could loose another round.

Wilf crawled to Jack, frantically trying to staunch the gaping chest wound with his inadequate handkerchief.

"Tejana, we've got to do something! Oh Lord, there's no pulse, he's dead! Tejana, he's not breathing!"

The Time Lady tugged gently on his arm, pulling him away from Jack's bleeding body.

"Keep back, Wilf," she said tightly.

Wilf stared at her emotionless face disbelievingly, great ragged sobs beginning to tear out of his throat. "That poor young man! He came here to _save _you and now he's dead and you don't even _care_?"

Tejana shook her head, a small rueful smile on her lips. "It's OK, I promise. Watch!"

Angry now, Wilf opened his mouth to argue further, but she cut across his rage with one cool word, "Watch!"

Then, with a huge gasp for air, Jack sat bolt upright. Through his torn shirt, Wilf could see the mangled wounds slowly begin to close and heal, until Jack's flesh was once again flawless and unmarked.

"How many is that now, Jack?" Tejana asked conversationally.

"One thousand, three hundred and fifty eight," he answered proudly, climbing to his feet and dusting himself off. "Of course, that includes the eight hundred odd times the Master killed me on _The Valiant_."

"Jack's an immortal," she explained to the flabbergasted old man. "He can't die, no matter what. So there's no need to worry about him."

"Gee, thanks a bunch," Jack muttered sarcastically. "I liked that shirt too."

"Are you...an alien, like the Doctor and Tejana?" Wilf asked haltingly, his eyes as wide as saucers.

Jack laughed. "Nope. Just a dopey human who ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time and now I can't die. Sometimes travelling with the Doctor can have some peculiar side effects!"

"So I gather," Wilf replied with a bewildered sigh. "Tejana, I'm sorry I shouted at you."

"It's fine," she said reassuringly. "You weren't to know. Jack's little gift comes as a surprise to most humans."

There were no more incidents, except that the UNIT Sergeant reported to Jack that Abigail Naismith had somehow managed to escape during the confusion of the raid.

"Ah, let her go," Tejana told Jack. "She's just a delusional nut-job."

They both escorted Wilfred home in a UNIT jeep.

"Best not to come in," Wilf said apologetically. "Sylvia will be bad enough, but if she knows it's something to do with the Doctor or his friends..."

"Ooooh yes, she scares me," Tejana agreed in amusement. "Although, Jack could probably charm even Sylvia. He's good at that."

"Good to know you think I'm useful for something!" Jack retorted, winking again at Wilf. "See you around, Mr Mott!"

"Goodbye, Captain."

And, with a little wave, Tejana followed Jack into the darkness and disappeared, leaving Wilf standing alone on his doorstep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:**

_**To Aietradaea: As we discussed, Wilf and Jack never actually met in person. Wilf may have had a fleeting glimpse of Jack over Rose's shoulder (he was sitting with Sylvia on the couch in the background) when she accessed the sub-wave network on the laptop, but Jack never saw Wilf at all. Thanks very much for your input, glad my introduction of the two characters still stands, I like to get my canon as correct as possible :0)**_

_**To The Six Paths Sage: Thanks for your review. Stay tuned... **_

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**CHAPTER 4**

Wilfred thought that would probably be the end of it. Tejana would vanish from his life just like the Doctor, leaving flat, dull day to follow flat, dull day. He knew he was lucky to have had the amazing experiences already granted to him, but he couldn't help longing for more.

To his surprise and immense delight, however, she came to visit him again a couple of weeks later and had another cup of tea with him. And then again not long after that, and then again, until it had become a semi-regular event. She was in London fairly often on Torchwood business, so whenever she could give Jack the slip, she ducked away to visit with Wilf.

The old man could sense the deep loneliness inside the Time Lady and was pleased that talking to him could bring her some relief. They exchanged many stories over those cups of tea in the cafe. Wilf told her of World War II and the things he had done in his life and the time he had spent with the Doctor. Tejana told him wonderful stories of places far away and times long ago and of the travels she had gone on with the Second, Fourth and Fifth Doctors. The tension around her blue eyes seemed to ease as she related funny anecdotes of life back then on the TARDIS. Sometimes she smiled, or even laughed, much to Wilf's pleasure.

But she never spoke of the Time War and she never again mentioned the Master's name. Wilf tried to bring up the subject of the renegade Time Lord several times, but Tejana would simply reach for her coat and leave, so he soon learned not to speak of it.

He asked about Jack, though, wondered why he and Tejana weren't a couple.

"You'd be perfect together," he declared stoutly. "And he loves you, girl, that's as plain as day."

Tejana laughed. "Jack loves a lot of people, Wilf," she replied in amusement. "He does spread himself around a bit. Not exactly the faithful type, our Jack."

"He must be a busy man then, if he looks after them all as well as he does you!" Wilf retorted. "Maybe he just needs the right woman."

Tejana refrained from telling Wilf that Jack was omni-sexual and was just as happy being with a man as a woman. Somehow she didn't think the old soldier would understand.

"He's a bit like a big brother, really. He just promised the Doctor he'd keep an eye on me and he's taking it all a bit far," she shrugged. "He'll get over it eventually."

Wilf wasn't convinced, but he let it go. He knew from arguing with his own grand-daughter that trying to get young people to see something they were determined not to see was next to impossible. He had come to care for Tejana like a second grandchild and he tended to forget she was hundreds of years older than him.

Then, one morning, everything changed. It was a Saturday and they sat in the cafe watching the happy throngs of shoppers passing back and forth, laden with packages and groceries. Tejana seemed strangely restless, unable to sit still, fidgeting constantly in her seat.

"What's wrong with you today, lass?" Wilf teased gently. "Got ants in your pants?"

"I'm not sure," she responded seriously. "There's...something...not right."

"What do you mean?" he asked, suddenly worried. He had learnt that when a Time Lord said something wasn't right, it was best to pay attention.

"I'm sure it's nothing important, Wilf, it's just..."

"What? It's just what?"

"My leg..." she replied hesitantly. "It stopped hurting today."

Wilf sighed in relief. "Is that all? But that's a good thing, isn't it? Maybe it's starting to heal at last?"

"Maybe," she nodded. "But, just in case, I just wanted to say thank you. You've been just like a real grandfather to me. I've never had any family except the Doctor, and he's not always around. It's been a real privilege to spend time with you. Donna is a very lucky girl, I hope she realises that."

"Don't talk like that, like you're not coming back!" Wilf protested.

Tejana stirred uneasily again. What was it? Something was gnawing at the edges of her mind, but she couldn't quite grasp it. It was almost like someone was...calling her, from far away, out of earshot.

Sudden panic seized her. Was it the Doctor? Was he in trouble?

With a conscious effort, she flung aside the mental shields she normally kept in place and urgently sought the Doctor's mind.

For a moment she was blinded by the human thoughts and emotions from the people around her:- the grief from a lady whose partner had recently died, the devastation of a young girl whose boyfriend had taken up with another girl, the elation of a student who had passed his exams, the boredom of a man in a business suit.

However, with the ease of long experience, she tuned them all out and touched the Doctor's mind, light years away in the TARDIS. He obviously felt the soft, familiar nudge, because he gently nudged back, as if to say hello. But there were no imperative emotions present, no fear or pain or even worry, just the Doctor's usual rapid, jumbled thought processes. Tejana felt a little better as she withdrew the mental contact. For once he wasn't in trouble, no problem there.

The nagging sense had grown stronger with the relaxing of her shields. It was threaded through the emotional upheaval surrounding her in the cafe, much closer than she had originally thought. Somewhere on Earth, something lost, something intangible, something seeking...

"Tejana?" Wilf interrupted. "Tejana!"

He had been speaking to her, but she hadn't heard him. She felt the waves of concern emanating from him, so strong that they almost blocked out the strange summons. Almost, but not quite...

"I'm fine, Wilf," she murmured distractedly. "Fine."

What _was_ it? Another Time Lord? No, that was impossible! With a gasp, she slammed her shields back into place, forcing the elusive whisper into the background of her mind once more.

Hurriedly, she climbed to her feet. "I have to go," she said, more abruptly than she intended.

"You'll come back though?" he asked in concern.

"Of course," she replied brightly. "I promise."

She bolted out of the cafe, turning her face up to the sunlight as she walked quickly away, breathing deeply in an effort to clear her mind.

She had hardly taken more than a few steps when her mobile phone rang.

"Hello, Jack."

"Tejana, where are you?"

"Fisher's Lane, Chiswick, near the park. Why?"

"Stay there, I'm coming to get you. We've got a big problem."

* * *

Jack and Tejana re-materialised in the new Torchwood Hub, staggering drunkenly as the vortex manipulator expelled them violently from the Time Vortex. Tejana wrinkled her nose in disgust. She had never liked the 51st century Earth device, but since returning from Gallifrey, she had come to regard it with almost superstitious loathing.

"So what's the problem?" she queried.

"It's the Rift." Jack answered grimly. "Someone's draining huge amounts of energy from it. The monitors are going haywire."

She followed him over to one of the terminals. The Torchwood Hub had been completely rebuilt after being virtually levelled by a bomb planted in Jack's stomach by the then-government during the 456 incident. The new administration, led by Prime Minister Denise Riley, had been unable to do enough to restore Torchwood, once Jack had returned to Earth to resume his leadership of the organisation, and the reconstruction of their Headquarters had been completed in short order.

Tejana had even talked the Doctor into using the TARDIS to replace the perception filter which had once existed to camouflage the secret entrance to The Hub.

It was easy enough to replace the building, she thought sadly, but less easy to replace the people who had once staffed it. She and Jack were the only ones in the large room at present, which these days was not unusual.

Gwen Cooper was still a member of the team, but she had a new baby and was unable to put in the long work hours she once had. Jack regularly encouraged her to go home and spend time with her loved ones. The events of the 456 had brought the importance of family home to them all with devastating impact.

Martha Jones was still working with UNIT, but was often seconded to Torchwood, if and when they needed her. In the meantime, she acted as a valuable liaison between the two organisations.

Her new husband, Mickey Smith, was officially employed by Torchwood. However, he was currently on assignment far in the North, following up some suspected Weevil activity.

All of this left the largest part of monitoring Rift activity in the core of The Hub up to Tejana and Jack himself. Once upon a time, Torchwood had maintained a 24 hour watch on the Rift monitors, but these days that was not possible.

Tejana, Gwen and Martha had all urged Jack to recruit some more staff. Jack would always admit that they were right, but would then proceed to do nothing about it. It was as though he felt it was disloyal to the memories of Ianto, Owen and Tosh to even consider replacing them.

"Look," he said now to Tejana. "It's an incredible drain."

She frowned, taking in the vast negative spikes on the monitor. Rapidly, she began tapping keys, trying to trace the source of the problem.

"This isn't an accident," she replied worriedly. "This is by design. And that is not good."

As she spoke, a familiar wheezing, groaning sound filled the air. Jack gave a happy shout as they saw the blue police box materialising in the far corner of the room, the light on top flashing rhythmically.

"Now _that's_ timing!" he said in satisfaction.

The TARDIS doors opened and a man with longish, floppy, brown hair emerged, dressed in an old-fashioned tweed jacket and a maroon bow tie. He was closely followed by a slender girl in a short skirt and long straight red hair.

"You rang?" the Doctor grinned at his daughter, giving a creditable impression of Lurch from the television show, The Addams Family.

Tejana smiled back, carefully concealing the tiny sad pang she felt, deep inside. Every now and then, when the TARDIS took her by surprise, she still somehow expected to see the tall, thin figure in the pin-striped suit and the long, brown coat, still expected to hear the silly "'ello!" with which Ten had always greeted her.

"Hello, Doctor. Hello, Amy," she said, returning her attention to the energy spikes on the monitor.

"Doctor, what are you doing here?" Jack demanded. "Does this energy drain have anything to do with you?"

The Doctor tapped his temple. "I felt Tejana looking for me through the psychic link. I thought something might be wrong, so I came to check up on her. _What_ energy drain?"

"I was checking up on _you_!" Tejana retorted. "But, as it happens, something is wrong. The monitors are showing an immense energy drain from the Rift."

The Doctor joined his daughter at the terminal and took over the keyboard, his fingers moving over the keys at blinding speed.

Jack's attention switched to Amy, his eyes appreciatively taking in her long stockinged legs.

"_Hello_, Amy! Looking good!"

"Don't start, Jack," the Doctor and Tejana chorused together, not bothering to look around.

"I was just saying hello!" Jack responded, his tone aggrieved, training his puppy-dog eyes on Amy's face.

"Oh, I don't mind," Amy said, her tone flattered.

The Doctor just shook his head and Tejana raised her eyes heavenward, both of them having heard Jack's flirtatious routine many times before.

Just then, an alarm started beeping on one of the other terminals. Jack hurried over to take a look.

"Uh-oh, more problems," he muttered. "The exterior scanners are picking up an atmospheric anomaly."

"What does that mean?" Amy asked curiously.

"Yes, Jack, what exactly does that mean?" the Doctor added with exaggerated patience.

"Looks like it's a …..fog, of some sort. According to this, it's covering the entire city of Cardiff, from perimeter to perimeter, like a weird blanket."

"Whatever it is, it's cut all communications to the city," Tejana said from her work-station. "No television, no phone, no internet. Cardiff is effectively cut off from the rest of the world."

"I've got a visual from the scanner," Jack called. A picture appeared on the large screen on the wall. "That's Roald Dahl Plass, directly above us."

No features of the landmark square were distinguishable on the screen, the view completely obscured by a curtain of shifting grey mist, undulating and eddying in an eerie panorama.

"Maybe it's just an ordinary fog?" Amy suggested. "We are right on the water, after all."

"In the middle of summer? Exactly covering the city from perimeter to perimeter? And coinciding with a negative energy spike in the Rift?" the Doctor replied with a frown. "No, something's happening here and I don't like the look of it."

"Tox screen is negative," Tejana spoke up, her fingers still flashing over the keyboard. "No harmful agents detected. It's not gas."

"Come on then," the Doctor said cheerfully, turning back to the TARDIS.

"Come on, where?" Jack queried.

"To take a look, of course," the Doctor returned impatiently. "That's the trouble with you Torchwood people, too much skulking below ground. You want to get out and have a look at the world every now and then!"

He disappeared inside the TARDIS, with Amy not far behind. Jack and Tejana looked at each other wryly, exchanged a shrug and then followed them through the doors.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

The TARDIS re-materialised beside the fountain, just near the Torchwood "invisible lift", still camouflaged by its low level perception filter. The Doctor stuck his head outside the doors for a brief moment and then returned inside to speak to his companions.

"On second thought, Jack, you and Amy had better stay here until we give you the all clear."

"But you just said..."

"I know what I said!" the Doctor snapped. "But there's something not right about this, so until I figure it out, you stay in the TARDIS."

"Shouldn't you...I don't know...wear gas masks or something?" Amy asked, as the Doctor and Tejana prepared to step outside the doors.

The Doctor glanced back at her. "Pond, we're Time Lords," he said condescendingly, as though that were explanation enough, and then they were gone.

"Ooooooh!" Amy exclaimed crossly. "Don't you just hate it when he goes all 'Time-Lordy' on you?"

Jack grinned in commiseration. "Happens a lot. You'd better get used to it."

* * *

Tejana stepped from the TARDIS directly into a dark, psychic hurricane of negative human emotions, so strong and overwhelming that she was nearly knocked physically off her feet. So vile was the sensation that she came close to vomiting in disgust before she slammed her mental shields up to maximum to screen it out.

"Not very nice, is it?" the Doctor commented blithely. "Now you see why I didn't want Amy and Jack out here. Whatever this is, it's aimed specifically at human bio-data."

He waved his arm through the fog and the strange vapour seemed to retreat from him, leaving a clear spot in the mist where his arm had been. "Doesn't seem to like Time Lords much, does it?"

Tejana pulled a face at him. "You might have warned me!" she retorted, her tone acidic.

"I wanted to know what you sensed from it," he shrugged nonchalantly. "Psychic stuff is more your forte than mine. What _did_ you sense?"

"Fear...pain...death..." she answered immediately, the words seeming to spring automatically to her tongue out of nowhere. She frowned thoughtfully. "And yet...I'm not sure why I said that. There were so many negative emotions, why do those three stand out?"

"Hmmmmm...curiouser and curiouser," he mused, turning in a slow circle to better observe the thick fog. It was so dense that it was impossible to see more than a few feet in front of him in any direction. "They're the exact three words that instantly came to me as well."

Tejana began walking, the mist parting before her, swirling away as though reluctant to touch her.

"It's much too quiet!" she said apprehensively. "There's no people noise, no traffic noise. Humans are never this quiet. _Cardiff _is never this quiet!"

"In London, this would definitely be called a pea-souper!" the Doctor remarked with cheerful inconsequence, removing an ionically-charged test-tube from his capacious packet and trying to secure a sample of the elusive vapour.

Tejana suppressed a shiver. It was much too easy to imagine distorted figures moving in the peculiar mist. "Yeah, it does feel like Jack the Ripper might pop out at any moment."

"I doubt it very much," the Doctor returned absently. "He was actually a Raston Warrior Robot, you know. I had to trick it into a Time Loop to jam its circuits. Its head exploded in the end, nasty business."

His daughter wasn't listening. "Doctor, quick, over here!"

She was crouching next to an inert figure lying spread-eagled on the ground, almost completely concealed by the shifting fog. As the Doctor came closer, he realised it was a man dressed in shorts, T-shirt and sandals. A camera was still strung around his neck. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and started to scan the man's vital signs.

"There are more of them," Tejana said urgently. "It looks like some sort of tour group."

"He's not dead," the Doctor told her, his expression grim. "But not far from it. Something has almost completely drained his bio-energetic field."

* * *

Inside the TARDIS, Jack and Amy were watching the two Time Lords on the exterior scanner screen. Amy was becoming more and more impatient. She resented being told to stay in the TARDIS like a little child. This wasn't what she had signed up for. Honestly, the Doctor was just so ….._bossy_...sometimes!

"I'm going out there," she said abruptly, unable to take it any more.

"Ohhhhh no!" Jack replied in alarm. "The Doctor said..."

"The Doctor worries too much. You heard Tejana, the tox screen was negative," Amy cut in airily. "We'll be fine. What could go wrong?"

With that she headed for the double doors.

"Amy, I don't think..."

The red-headed girl tossed him a teasing, flirtatious look over her shoulder. "C'mon, Jack! You don't always do what you're told, do you?"

And then she was gone.

Jack gave a sigh of exasperation. He just knew this wasn't a good idea, but he couldn't let Amy go on her own. Reluctantly, he followed her through the door.

* * *

The Doctor had just finished scanning the other twelve members of the tour group. Each displayed the same results as the first.

"I think it's safe to assume this is why everything is so quiet," the Time Lord said bleakly. "Whatever happened to these people has no doubt affected the entire human population of Cardiff."

Tejana's face blanched in distress. "Oh gods! Gwen, Rhys, the baby..."

The Doctor shook his head. "I'm sorry."

"But they're not dead!" she cried frantically. "We can still find out what happened, reverse it..."

Before the Doctor could reply, a dark blur tinged with red raced past Tejana at full speed and flung itself savagely at him. With a start, Tejana realised it was Amy, her face contorted with rage, her fingers curled into vicious talons as she clawed at the Doctor's face with her long purple nails.

"Twelve years, you bastard! I waited for you for _twelve years_! Do you have any idea what that was like? I was just a child, waiting for you in the cold and dark, and you never came! _You never came_!"

Taken by surprise, the Doctor collapsed under the weight of her unexpected attack. For a few seconds, they struggled violently on the ground before Amy went limp in his arms. Running to help, Tejana saw the Doctor's fingers pressing on the pulse points in Amy's neck. Four bloody scratches marked his left cheek.

"Whew!" he gasped, trying to sit up while still supporting Amy. "Venusian karate! Haven't used it in centuries. Haven't lost my touch though!"

Tejana was staring in horror at Amy's face. "Doctor, her head!"

As they watched, hundreds of tiny black specks began to emerge from the fog, converging on Amy's head, forming a black cloud which grew larger and darker with every moment that passed.

"They're nanogenes!" the Doctor yelled in sudden understanding. "The fog is made up of billions of mutated nanogenes! They're absorbing the negative energy from her bio-energetic field."

Tejana was familiar with nano-technology, the manipulation of a swarm of tiny, sub-atomic robots, usually for benign medical purposes. Races such as the Chula used them in times of war to accelerate the healing of their injured soldiers. In fact, given a pre-existing template, nanogenes could even restore life after death if they reached a victim soon enough. But she had never seen anything like this. Nanogenes were usually golden in colour, infinitesimal glowing orbs hovering in the air like miniature fireflies. These spheres were black as night, warped from their original life-giving purpose into something malignant and wrong. They clustered around Amy's head like putrid leeches, bloated with the dark emotional energy they were busily absorbing from her.

"We have to get her back into the TARDIS! It's the only safe place!" the Doctor ordered, trying to half carry, half drag the girl back the way they had come.

Before Tejana could move to assist him, a distinctive sound echoed through the still air, a lethal warning which chilled her blood – the "snick-slam" of the slide on a semi-automatic pistol.

Slowly, carefully, she turned around, already knowing what she was going to see. Sure enough, there stood Jack, his weapon trained directly on her, his expression twisted with an awful mixture of anger, pain, loss and bewilderment. Already the horrible little black motes were being drawn to him, like iron filings to a magnet.

"Doctor," she said quietly. "Get Amy into the TARDIS. I'll deal with this."

"Tejana..."

"Trust me!" she cut in urgently, knowing that he was torn between Amy's need and his daughter's peril. "Amy is your responsibility. Jack is mine."

The Doctor hesitated for just one more second, but then gave a single nod and continued to tow Amy towards the safety of the TARDIS.

Tejana knew that Jack was in deadly danger. It was bad enough for Amy – if the nanogenes were permitted to fully drain her bio-energetic field, she would die. But although Jack was human, he was also immortal - he could not die. He would remain in a vegetative state forever, a living death for all eternity. Whatever it took, somehow she had to stop that from happening, hopefully without getting shot in the process.

"Jack," she said evenly, keeping his attention directed at her and away from the Doctor and Amy. "Jack, I need you to listen to me. You have to stay calm, do you understand me?"

"I can't do this any more!" Jack cried, his face taut with pain. "I did what you wanted. I came back, tried to start again. But I miss Stephen and Ianto so much! _So damn much_! It's like this huge hole in me, sucking everything in and it hurts with every breath I take! I thought it'd get better! I thought, because I've lived so long, lost so many, that it would get easier. But I'm not like you Time Lords, always moving on, never looking back...I can't shake this dirt from my feet, I just can't!"

Tejana blinked back tears. Jack so very rarely showed his true feelings, his absolute grief, over the devastation of the 456 incident. He covered it all expertly behind a devil-may-care, happy-go-lucky mask, until people forgot that there was any more to Captain Jack Harkness than the front they were able to see.

Guilt tore at her as she gazed at his ravaged features. Perhaps she had been wrong to talk Jack into returning to Earth. Perhaps she should have permitted him to grieve and heal in his own way, should have allowed Torchwood to die a natural death. At best, it had been an example of Time Lord arrogance, thinking she knew better. At worst, it had been an act of pure selfishness, because she had needed a place to retreat from her own pain, a place to belong.

"Oh, Jack!" she murmured. "I'm so sorry."

The gun came up sharply, expertly pointed at her head.

"Sorry!" Jack snarled viciously. "You're _sorry_! It was your fault! You and the Doctor both! Where were you when we needed you? Off saving some other planet! Off defeating the Red Carnivorous Maw – I mean, what the hell _was _that? Why was it more important than Earth, more important than your _friends_? Ianto and Stephen _died_ because you weren't there! Sometimes I hate you, Tejana, sometimes _I just want to make you pay_!"

The nanogenes were swirling madly now, inexorably drawn by the terrible inner conflict in his eyes, the swarm much thicker than the one which had attacked Amy. Jack had nearly two centuries of pain buried in his head, a gourmet feast for the tiny parasites. Tejana knew she had to think of something quickly, or it was going to be too late. She had to stop Jack reliving his most traumatic memories, had to cancel out the dark emotions that were feeding the nanogenes.

Then it came to her, the one way she could protect him. She scrabbled desperately in her jacket pockets, sorting wildly through the accumulated detritus inside:- her sonic screw-driver, a tiny torch, a small tin box, a ball of string, a marine compass, her Torchwood PDA, a can of anti-weevil spray and any number of other miscellaneous items. At last she found it, still there after all this time:- her old TARDIS key, still fitted with the small low-level perception filter the Doctor had installed when they had been trying to sneak aboard _The Valiant_ without being detected.

Perception filters had a two-fold purpose. Firstly, and most obviously, to deflect attention from the wearer. But the flow-on effect from that was that the filter would also protect the wearer from incoming psychic manipulation, ensuring their perception remained clear and untainted.

Although this one had originally been attuned to the Archangel Network, which had since been deactivated, the close proximity to the TARDIS would hopefully ensure that it still did the job. If she could just get near enough to slip it around Jack's neck!

"I get that you're angry, Jack, I understand that, more than you'll ever know," she said, trying to distract him with her words as she surreptitiously advanced on him. "Believe me, if there was anything the Doctor and I could do to change it, we would. But some things can't be changed, even for Time Lords."

The gun still tracked her unwaveringly, even though his face was now almost completely obscured by the parasitic cloud. She was running out of time.

"Just hold on for me, Jack, just one more minute!" she begged.

Then she lunged forward, dragging the chain holding the TARDIS key over his head. Jack went down hard and the gun went off in a deafening explosion of sound.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER SIX**

Tejana stumbled through the doors of the TARDIS, Jack's arm slung around her neck, supporting his considerable weight.

The bullet had sailed harmlessly past her into the mist, although somewhat too close for comfort. The nanogene cloud surrounding Jack had begun to disperse immediately, moving on in search of a new victim, as the perception filter restored his mental clarity.

When Jack's eyes had opened, they had been lucid once more. He had been weakened by the energy drain, but had still been able to make his way back to the TARDIS, with some assistance from Tejana.

Amy was was laying on the floor, still recovering, with the Doctor crouched reassuringly beside her. He leapt up as they entered and helped Tejana lower Jack to the ground beside the red-headed girl.

"A perception filter!" the Doctor exclaimed, his eyes lighting up with approval. "Good girl! Blimey, when you're brilliant it's just so obvious you're my daughter!"

He gave Tejana a tight hug, adding, "That's obviously why Jack and Amy weren't affected while the were in The Hub – it was protected by the perception filter in place on the pavement overhead. The Hub is probably the safest place in Cardiff right now, aside from the TARDIS."

Jack groaned loudly, cradling his head in his hands. "Ooooh, worse than a Galgonian brandy hangover and I've had a few of those! I can't remember a thing! What happened?"

"Tejana just saved your big stupid neck, that's what happened!" the Doctor snapped crossly.

Jack flashed his most charming little boy grin at Tejana in a placatory fashion. "In that case, thanks!"

"No problem," she answered quietly, not meeting his eyes.

Jack might not be able to remember what he had said, but she would never forget it. Somewhere, very deep inside, so deep he probably didn't even realise it himself, he blamed her so completely for the deaths of Ianto and Stephen that part of him actually hated her for it. The knowledge pierced her like a needle. Jack was her best friend. They had laughed together and cried together, joked together and grieved together. He had always been there for her. But when he needed her, she had been light years away with the Doctor, and Jack had been alone. It was so easy to say that she and the Doctor could not have known that the 456 would come to Earth in their absence, but the inescapable truth was that they had failed Jack completely when it mattered the most.

"Fear...pain...death..."Amy mumbled weakly, breaking into Tejana's bleak train of thought.

"_What?_" she demanded, whirling around.

"In my head...that's all I could feel in my head!" Amy continued.

The Doctor and his daughter exchanged a look.

"Now that _is_ peculiar!" the Doctor muttered. Then he straightened and eyed his companions sternly. "Mind you, it serves you both right, you know! I specifically told you to stay in the TARDIS. I don't just talk to hear the sound of my own voice, you know...well, not always, anyway."

Tejana sighed inwardly. They were about to get what she privately called the Doctor's "Dad speech". She had heard it so many times from almost every one of the Doctor's incarnations – Five had been particularly fond of it, she recalled - and it was pretty much always the same.

_Here it comes...You do realise you nearly got yourselves killed?_

"I hope you realise you nearly got yourselves killed out there?"

_Oh well, close enough...This is my TARDIS and while you're travelling in my TARDIS you need to obey my rules..._

"This is my TARDIS and while you're travelling in my TARDIS you need to obey my rules!"

_Spot on, that time! And just to finish off...Do I make myself clear?_

"Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Doctor," Jack and Amy chorused, like chastened school children.

"Well...OK then," the Doctor responded, his tone slightly mollified. "We won't discuss it again."

"Doctor, the nanogenes?" Tejana asked patiently, trying to bring the discussion back on track.

"Yes, quite," the Doctor frowned.

"Nanogenes? What nanogenes?" Jack demanded.

He had come across a swarm of the tiny robots once before, when he had hi-jacked a Chula ambulance ship as part of an elaborate con he had been trying to pull off.

"That's what attacked you and Amy," Tejana told him. "The fog is actually a huge swarm of nanogenes."

"You're joking!" Jack exclaimed incredulously. "But nanogenes are supposed to heal, not harm."

"These have been mutated," the Doctor said grimly. "My guess is, someone is using the energy drain from the Rift to generate a massive psychic attack on the human population of Cardiff, making you all relive the most traumatic and pain-filled events in your past. The nanogenes then move in and absorb all that negative emotional energy, a very efficient collection system, leaving the human subjects with a completely drained bio-energetic field."

"But why?" Amy asked. "What are they using the energy for?"

"Somebody's feeding," the Doctor said bluntly. "Or, at the very least, stocking their larder."

"Like...a psychic vampire?" Jack hazarded a guess.

"Exactly like," the Doctor agreed, moving swiftly to the TARDIS console. "The question is, who?"

His hands moved expertly over the controls. "Now then, any efficient collection system requires an equally efficient storage system. The TARDIS sensors indicate that the energy drain from the Rift is flowing directly up...let's have a look at what's _really _up above Roald Dahl Plass!"

A few more tweaks of the console and then he smiled in satisfaction. "Aaaaah, there you are...and aren't you a beauty?"

On the TARDIS view-screen, far above fog-shrouded Cardiff, a ship seemed to materialise out of thin air. It appeared to be constructed from some sort of pure white crystalline substance and bore more than a passing resemblance to a giant, lacy, intricate snowflake.

"Just a second out of sync with the space-time continuum, the perfect hiding place!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Exactly what I would have done! They're obviously some sort of higher species and time-sensitive into the bargain."

Tejana was staring at the lovely ship, transfixed with absolute horror. She had studied these ships in her History classes at the Academy on Gallifrey. Since the commencement of the Last Great Time War, there were supposed to be none left in existence throughout the Universe.

"They're more than time-sensitive!" she gasped. "That's a Psionic ship. They're Eternals!"

The Doctor scowled at her. "That's not possible. You know that's not possible."

"Fear...Pain...Death!" she retorted fiercely. "Deimos...Odyne...Thanatos!"

"The Dark Triumvirate?" he said in disbelief. "Rassilon banished them into the Void in the dawn of Time Lord history!"

"Gallifrey is gone, the Time Lords are dead! The balance of the Universe has changed, everything has shifted. What if they escaped from the Void? What if they're here on Earth?"

"OK, time out!" Amy cut in, her hands forming a "T" gesture. "Ignorant human here. What the hell are you two talking about?"

"Eternals," the Doctor answered in a hard voice. "Incredibly ancient and powerful beings made out of the very matter of time – a polymorphic lattice of photinos and chronons, bound together by super strings. They can take any form, but in their natural manifestation they appear to be made entirely of light. They are completely amoral, their principal aim in life is to amuse themselves, using lesser lifeforms as their toys. In the past they have found it entertaining to pose as Gods and doom entire worlds in the process."

He began to pace up and down restlessly, turning the problem over in his mind as he spoke.

"The Dark Triumvirate were the worst of all, very cruel and very dangerous creatures who spread evil, chaos and destruction wherever they went. In the very beginning of Time Lord history, they were impersonating the Gallifreyan deities of Fear, Pain and Death, torturing the indigenous population of Gallifrey in every way they could think of, both for entertainment and also to feed on the negative energy generated by the minds of their victims. Legend has it that Lord President Rassilon challenged them and won, banishing them forever into the Void, the space between the Universes, known to the Eternals as 'The Howling'."

"But they're back, right?" Jack asked bleakly. "Right here in Cardiff?"

"If that's true," the Doctor said, his tone heavy with dread. "Then not only Earth, but the whole Universe, is in very grave danger."


	7. Chapter 7

_**Author's Note**_**:**

_**To KlinicallyInsaneKoschei – Thankyou so much for making my day with your kind review:0)**_

_**

* * *

**_

**CHAPTER 7**

The TARDIS doors opened, just a crack, and the Doctor peered out cautiously. It appeared the old girl had done him proud – they had materialised perfectly on the flight deck of the Psionic ship.

The interior of the ship was as beautiful as the exterior, the walls and the floors sculpted from a pure white glowing stone closely resembling quartz. The flight deck was currently deserted.

Instead of bounding out enthusiastically as he normally did, the Doctor stepped forward warily, unwilling to be taken by surprise. His three companions followed with equal caution.

The room was circular, not particularly large and was almost completely empty. In the exact centre stood a massive transparent cylinder which reached from the floor to the ceiling. It was filled with a filthy black cloud of swarming nanogenes, each one bloated to capacity with negative energy.

"And there it is, the efficient storage system," the Doctor commented in satisfaction. "I bet that cylinder forms the core of the entire ship."

Jack looked around the empty room in puzzlement.

"If this is the flight deck...where are all their drive systems, their control consoles?"

"It's a Psionic ship, Jack," Tejana replied. "It's powered by psychic energy. The Eternals use telepathy to operate the systems."

"All right then, time to stop tip-toeing around!" the Doctor said loudly. "Let's get some answers. Hellooooooo! Is there anybody at home? Anybody? You've got visitors!"

As if in response to his summons, the air before the transparent cylinder started to shimmer and three ethereal figures began to appear. Their bodies were composed completely of light, as the Doctor had previously described, their flowing robes forming and reforming in refulgent argence, so bright that it was almost painful to look upon. They were over seven feet tall, majestic and imposing, crowned with spiked diadems of luminous silver. Their faces were not fixed, one moment seeming cold and arrogant, the next pure and serene, the expressions flickering, never constant. The opalescent light swirled within them, streaming through and around them, illuminating the stark white walls and floor in a blaze of gleaming silver fire.

Amy's jaw dropped in stunned awe. "They're so beautiful!" she whispered reverently. "Just like angels."

"Yes, well, appearances can be very deceiving," the Doctor said harshly. "Allow me to introduce Thanatos, otherwise known as Death. On his left stands Deimos, or Fear, and on his right Odyne, Lady of Pain."

"Ah, I see you know of us, Time Lord," Thanatos responded coldly, his voice perfect, mellifluous and utterly devoid of compassion. "We know of you also...Doctor. The Destroyer of Worlds...the Oncoming Storm...the Great Betrayer...killer of his own kind, the Time Lord who obliterated his own planet and everyone on it!"

"The Doctor...the man who makes people better..." Odyne cut in mockingly, her voice high and clear, as hard and icy as a diamond. "How sanctimonious is that?"

The Doctor tensed, a frown wrinkling his forehead. He had heard these same words before, a long time ago...but where?

"The Ephemeral child we know not," Deimos spoke up, indicating Amy with a gesture. "It is of no moment, she is unimportant."

"Hey!" Amy protested indignantly. "I happen to be _very _important, thank you very much! And what exactly does 'Ephemeral' mean? Is that supposed to be rude?"

"It's the term given by the Eternals to any life-form with a limited life-span," Tejana explained softly. "The Eternals are immortal, they live forever. Even Time Lords are Ephemerals to them."

"Unlike _you_, Captain Jack Harkness," Thanatos said suddenly, swinging his attention to Jack. "You should not be and yet you are. A fixed point in time, the human who cannot die, neither Eternal nor Ephemeral."

"How do you know that?" Jack demanded. "How do you know about me?"

"Captain Freak!" Odyne giggled nastily. "And the good thing is, after I kill him, he's not dead for long. I get to kill him again!"

Tejana's head shot up, her eyes widening. These words were also familiar and she knew exactly who had said them, standing on the bridge of _The Valiant _while annihilation waited to descend on the Earth in the form of the Toclafane. What the hell was going on here?

"And we know you, Time Lady, last female of your kind," Thanatos continued silkily. "Ana...the Doctor's daughter."

"_What did you call me_?" she said sharply. Aside from her mother, only one other person had ever called her 'Ana' and he was dead!

"Beautiful Ana!" Odyne taunted, her tone faintly suggestive. "Oh, we know you, _so very well_..."

And suddenly she understood. The words of the prophecy she had foolishly ignored rang in her ears:

_Trapped in the light that seeks only darkness, he returns..._

A surge of wild, incredulous hope flooded through her veins. That faint summons in the back of her mind, it had been the Master all along!

He was alive! Somehow, yet again, he had survived. He wasn't dead. _Oh, gods, he wasn't dead_!

He was the Master. The Master always came back.

"Where is he?" she snarled. "What have you done?"

Odyne laughed, a chilling sound of cruel mockery.

"Tejana, what are you talking about?" the Doctor asked urgently, alarmed by his daughter's white, set face, her blazing eyes.

"They have the Master!" she replied curtly, her voice tight with suppressed anger. "He's alive and he's on this ship somewhere!"

The Doctor blinked in confusion. "The Master?"

"She speaks of my toy," Odyne said in amusement. "My pretty Time Lord toy!"

"W_hat have you done_?" Tejana repeated furiously.

"For eon upon eon, we survived within The Howling, trapped there by the accursed Time Lord Rassilon," Thanatos declared bitterly. "With every year that passed, our hatred grew more powerful, sustaining us, keeping us strong. We had only one desire, total revenge on the Time Lords, the full and complete destruction of Gallifrey. Yet, when we finally emerged, full of fury, ready to unleash our vengeance, Gallifrey was gone, nothing left but an asteroid field of rubble floating through the Constellation of Kasterborous. We used our telepathic powers to scour the Universe and found only three Time Lord survivors. Of so many, only three remained. Two were strong, but far away, on a tiny insignificant planet known as Earth. The third was weak, his life force all but extinguished, within a few moments of death, floating alone and abandoned through space in an ancient TARDIS. We found him, restored his body to health with our nanogene technology. But his mind we kept for ourselves."

"In the past, we have so rarely been able to possess the stronghold of a Time Lord mind," Deimos added with a triumphant smile. "But he was so close to death, he was defenceless and could not resist. From him we learned of the Last Great Time War and the destruction of Gallifrey. And we learned about the planet Earth and its pathetic indigenous species, the human race, full of dark thoughts and lusts, riddled with hatred, greed, envy, anger and murder and war...the perfect place for us to begin our conquest of the Universe, Once we had assimilated all we needed to know, Odyne took the Time Lord as her toy...she does _so _love to play!"

"He has such a dark mind," Odyne said gleefully. "Full of shadow and pain and torment...I have had such pleasure from him!"

Tejana's fists clenched in inchoate fury and she took an involuntary step forward, only to feel the Doctor grasp her arm and hold her back.

"I won't let you do this," the Doctor announced grimly. "I _will _stop you. If you know as much about me as you say you do, you'll know this isn't an idle threat. I'm giving you one warning and one warning only – restore the city of Cardiff and then return peacefully to the Void. If you don't, I will be forced to act."

The three Eternals laughed, the sound ringing like the cold pealing of multiple bells.

"We hope you do try to stop us, Doctor," Thanatos replied malevolently. "It will amuse us very much. Our choice of planet was not at random. We know that of all the worlds in the Universe, this one is most dear to you. We intend to force you to watch us suck it dry, leaving only an arid husk to be blown here and there by the Winds of Time. We intend to enjoy watching you strive to prevent us and then we will feed on your pain as you inevitably fail. So...let the games begin, Time Lord!"

With that, the Eternals disappeared, vanishing into a spectacular silver shimmer of light which slowly faded into nothing.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Author's Note:**_

_**To KlinicallyInsaneKoschei – Thanks for another review! BTW, love your username :)**_

_**To Omniac – It always feels good to get reviews, so yours is very welcome, thank you very much!**_

* * *

**CHAPTER 8**

The Doctor was absolutely fuming when he led the way back into the TARDIS.

"Take me on, will they?" he growled angrily. "_Big _mistake! Huge! Massive, in fact!"

"So, how do we kill them, Doc?" Jack asked.

"Kill them?" the Doctor snapped. "That's such a typically Torchwood thing to say. I suppose you'd like to go out there and fire a big gun at them?"

"If it will help restore Cardiff then, yeah, love to!"

"Well, it won't," the Doctor said, walking up and down in an agitated fashion. "You can't kill them. They're Eternals, they can't die. You of all people should be able to get that concept."

"Can't we do whatever that guy Rassilon did?" Jack suggested. "After all, he managed to get rid of them the first time."

The Doctor stopped pacing and glared at him. "We could...if we knew what it was he did. Ancient Gallifreyan history tends to be very poetic, but not very practical. I think the story goes that the Eternals were swept into the void by the 'mighty arm of Rassilon', which doesn't exactly help us a lot."

"What do we do then?" Amy cut in. "How do we stop them?"

"By doing something completely and utterly magnificent, of course," the Doctor prevaricated.

Amy shook her head in exasperation, knowing him much too well by now. "In other words, you haven't figured it out yet."

"Work in progress," the Doctor responded irritably, pacing even faster now, clicking his fingers rhythmically as he tried to think. "What do we know? _What _do we know? What do we _know_?"

All of a sudden, he whirled on his daughter and pointed a finger in her face. "Tejana, how did you know they had the Master?"

Tejana had not been listening to any of their conversation, her thoughts miles away, still trying to absorb the fact that the Master was alive after all. Startled by the Doctor's question, she tried to collect herself enough to answer him coherently. "There was a prophecy..."

"Oh, a _prophecy_! Of course there was! Why wouldn't there be? There's _always _a prophecy!" the Doctor interrupted sarcastically. "And you only just now thought to mention it because...?"

"_Because_ it was made by the Cult of Saxon, who are a complete bunch of lunatics and I didn't take it seriously, OK?" Tejana shot back, stung by his accusatory tone. "My bad!"

The Doctor took a deep breath and calmed down. "All right then...so what did it say exactly?"

Tejana closed her eyes and tried to remember word for word what the visionary had said.

"_He comes! Trapped in the light that seeks only darkness, he returns. The three who remain must stand as one in the Portal of Eternity, lest the Universe and all within it fall into shadow forever more._"

"'The light that seeks only darkness' – that's pretty self-evident, it means the Eternals," the Doctor muttered. "'The three who remain' – you, me and the Master, the last of the Time Lords. But what is 'the Portal of Eternity' ?"

Abruptly, he slammed the heel of his palm against his forehead. "Come on, _think_! Portal, portal...Portal of Eternity..."

Then his eyes widened and he snapped his fingers triumphantly. "Of course! The only thing it _can _be – Eternity Dust!"

"Eternity Dust?" Jack queried. "Sounds like some sort of exotic recreational drug!"

"No..." Tejana said, frowning. "Eternity Dust is the name Gallifreyan children gave to Huon Particles in their fairy tales."

"What are Huon Particles?" Amy asked.

"The oldest form of energy in the Universe," the Doctor replied, rubbing his hands together enthusiastically. "Older by far than the Eternals themselves. Highly volatile, _very _dangerous. But the important thing is that in a large enough quantity, Huon Particles can be used as a teleport. We can't kill the Eternals. The only way to stop them is to transfer them back into the Void and slam the door shut behind them."

"But the Time Lords destroyed all the Huon Particles left in the Universe _because _they were so dangerous, didn't they?" Jack argued. "Torchwood had the last few and even they got destroyed when the Racnoss came to town. Besides, they need to be catalysed within an organic lifeform before they can be used as a teleport."

"There are still two places left you can find them," the Doctor responded. "Firstly, in the heart of the TARDIS. Secondly...within Time Lord DNA. Every Time Lord is...was... born with Huon Particles embedded in their molecular structure. It's what protects us from the rigours of prolonged travel within the Time Vortex and also enables each Time Lord to bond with their TARDIS – all part of the Imprimatur of Rassilon, long story really. And as for the catalysing process, only one organic life form in the Universe is strong enough to absorb and contain enough Huon Particles to transfer an Eternal between the dimensions – and that is a Time Lord."

"Gods!" Tejana exclaimed, her face suddenly ashen as the Doctor's plan became clear to her. "You're not suggesting we _stand_ in the Portal. You're suggesting we _become _the Portal."

The Doctor nodded gravely. "Yes. If we can infuse ourselves with enough Particles, our physical forms will transform into a gateway between the dimensions, controlled by our combined mental energy. We can absorb the Eternals into our bodies and they will pass directly through into the Void."

"Are you even listening to what you're saying?" his daughter gasped in horror. "To infuse a Time Lord with that much raw power...yes, we would be able to control it for a very short time, but after that..."

"After that...what?" Amy demanded, alarmed at the look of dread on Tejana's face.

"After that, the Huon energy would effectively burn out our souls. We would become monsters, unstoppable and completely conscienceless, a thousand times worse than the Eternals themselves," the Doctor answered bleakly. "Which is why, if we do this, we will need to rely on you, Jack, to reverse the flow of Huon Particles as soon as the Eternals are gone. This is probably the most important thing I've ever asked of you – get this wrong and there will be no saving the Universe."

"No pressure then?" Jack joked grimly. Then he straightened and gave the Doctor a formal salute. "You can count on me, Sir!"

"Good man!" the Doctor approved. Then he looked over at his daughter. "Tejana, can you trust me on this?"

Tejana hesitated. Only another Time Lord could possibly understand just how dangerous his plan was, the enormous potential for unutterable disaster. In the back of her mind, an unwelcome childlike part of her was wailing desperately for Ten, the lost father she had trusted so implicitly.

"Is there no other way?" she asked quietly.

"No," he replied steadily. "Otherwise I would never ask it of you."

She took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. "Then I trust you."

"Right then!" he said brightly. "Time to be magnificent! We'd better get organised. Firstly, we're going to need the Master."

Jack pulled a sour face. "Do we have to?"

"The 'three who remain', Jack," the Doctor snapped. "Three Eternals, three Time Lords. We need him."

"That's my job," Tejana spoke up, already on her feet and moving. "Now that I know he's here, I'll find him. I'll bring him back with me."

"Tejana, wait!" Jack protested. "Tejana!"

But she had already gone. Hurriedly, Jack followed her and the doors swung shut behind him.

The Doctor was already madly typing incomprehensible instructions into one of the TARDIS terminals.

"What are you doing now?" Amy asked, looking over his shoulder.

"Programming in the algorithm we'll need to open the heart of the TARDIS," he said absently. "It's not as easy as it sounds, you know."

"So who's this Master bloke then?"

"Another Time Lord, like me."

"And you two don't exactly get on, right?"

The Doctor grunted. "You could say that."

"So...it must be pretty awkward with Tejana having a thing for him then?"

"A _thing_?" The Doctor looked at her as though she had suddenly grown two heads. "You don't know what you're talking about, Pond!"

"Oh, come on, Doctor!" she retorted. "It was written all over her face when she found out he was still alive!"

"Tejana..._my daughter_...does _not _have 'a thing' for the Master!" the Doctor enunciated emphatically. "End of story!"

Amy rolled her eyes. "If you say so. I think I may have mentioned this before, but for a nine hundred year old alien, you can be really, really thick sometimes."

With that, she wandered over to peer out of the doors, leaving him alone.

"Huh!" he muttered crossly, going back to the algorithm he was typing and trying to ignore the little worm of worry coiling in the back of his mind. "Tejana and the Master, ridiculous!"

Outside the TARDIS, Jack and Tejana were arguing.

"I'm coming with you!"

"No, Jack. The Doctor will need you here to show you what you have to do. He wasn't joking about how crucial your role in this is going to be!" she answered firmly. "But you can do something for me...lend me your vortex manipulator."

Jack unstrapped it from his wrist and handed it to her. "What for?"

She pulled out her sonic screwdriver and started to adjust the control settings. "The Time Lords created the Time Vortex using artron energy. It basically slices through the matter of Time to create a pathway for a traveller to get from A to B. And temporal devices, such as the vortex manipulator, absorb artron energy every time they pass through the Time Vortex."

"So?"

"So...the Eternals were created from the very matter of Time itself. If I can reverse the function of the manipulator so that it _emits_ artron energy instead of absorbing it...well, I might not be able to kill them, but I bet I can give them a nasty shock," Tejana said, a cold, purposeful glint in her eyes. "I rather look forward to giving the Lady of Pain a taste of her own medicine."

Jack scowled. "The Master won't help, you know, even if you do manage to get him free. Why should he? I know you think he's some kind of newly-minted galactic hero, but he's not. He's a murdering maniac who nearly destroyed the Earth more than once! There's no way he'll put himself at risk for this."

Tejana sighed inwardly. She had never told anyone the true and complete version of what had happened between herself and the Master in The Matrix, but sometimes she wondered just how much Jack had guessed.

"I have to try, Jack," she said. "I owe him this. I left him behind once before. Now I'm going back for him."

With that, she walked away, leaving Jack staring angrily after her.

She had only gone a few steps when she hesitated and then turned and looked back at him.

"Jack...?"

"Yeah?"

She gave him a shaky smile. "See ya in hell," she said flippantly, mimicking one of Jack's own favourite good luck sayings.

Despite himself, Jack couldn't help grinning back. "Not if I see you first!" he retorted gruffly.

And then she was gone.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Author's Note:**_

_**To Omniac – thanks for the continuing encouragement, much appreciated :0) !**_

_**

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**CHAPTER 9**

Tejana strode briskly down the corridor, not bothering to conceal herself in any way. There was no point. This was a Psionic ship, one big sensory organ. She had no doubt that the Eternals were registering every footstep she took on the polished quartz floor. She could literally feel the eyes watching her, crawling over her like invisible insects.

The Eternals were immensely powerful beings. They could easily have destroyed the two Time Lords and their companions as they stood before them on the flight deck of the ship. But that was not their way. Jaded from eon after eon of unchanging, unending life, they were no longer able to experience real emotion for themselves. Their sole enjoyment was now to observe emotion in others, to manipulate and toy with the lives of chosen Ephemerals, placing them in life-threatening situations and watching them struggle. To them, it was like watching a cosmic soap opera, the ever-changing disposable "actors" mere pawns in the games. After millennia trapped in the Void by Rassilon, a game of cat and mouse with the last of the Time Lords would be exhilarating to them indeed, confident as they were in their final victory.

But that confidence was their greatest weakness and it would prove their undoing. They were not the first to underestimate the Doctor and they would not be the last. As he had said, it was a massive mistake to make.

Or, as Ten would have said, "_Mister Thick Thick Thickety Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania...and so's your Dad!"_

The memory made Tejana smile, somehow giving her courage. She guessed that Odyne expected her to come for the Master - that was the intention behind all the goading remarks during the confrontation on the flight deck. That, too, was fine – if the Lady of Pain wanted a fight, Tejana was only too willing to oblige.

It wasn't as easy as she had first thought to track the Master down. She couldn't afford to lower her mental shields even the slightest bit. The last thing they needed was any of the Eternals inside her head. So instead she focussed on the elusive whisper in her mind to the exclusion of all else, isolating the fragile link and following it like a beacon.

Finally, after several false starts, she found him. He was in a small room, lying on a couch made from the same crystal substance as the walls and the floors. The remainder of the room was completely empty. Apparently the Eternals had little use for furniture as a general rule. Ornate crystal columns supported the ceiling at regular intervals around the walls. The door was wide open, making Tejana feel extremely uneasy.

A morbid rhyme whispered grimly in her mind: _"'Will you walk into my parlour?' said the spider to the fly_..."

It was a perfect description of Odyne, a fat, black, venomous spider at the centre of her web, waiting to rend and devour. Tejana shuddered at the image. She absolutely hated spiders.

Standing on the threshold of the room, she realised it was not quite as empty as she had first thought. Immediately, she heard the muted gentle song of Rassilon's TARDIS, deep within her subconscious. The ancient time machine recognised her and welcomed her, just as it had in The Matrix. The Chameleon Circuit had obviously chosen to automatically transform the outer shell of the TARDIS into a facsimile of one of the crystal pillars situated around the room, in an attempt to blend in with the surroundings.

_The Eternals must be very sure of the Master, to leave him in a room with an unguarded TARDIS_, she thought worriedly.

She entered cautiously, her eyes fixed on the motionless figure on the couch. He was still dressed as she had seen him last, in the black hoodie, black jeans and black work boots. But now the clothes looked brand new, no longer dirty or torn, as though the nanogenes had renewed not only his flesh but the fabric which covered it as well. She could see his chest rising and falling steadily as he breathed.

She came to stand beside him, her eyes finding his face, uncertain what to feel. She knew what her emotions _should_ be, the same ones Jack felt towards his hated enemy:- anger, loathing, contempt, maybe even fear. And she had felt all of those towards him, once. But somehow, that had all been left behind in The Matrix. Everything that had happened on Gallifrey had been so surreal, she didn't know what to think or feel any more...

The nanogenes had obviously used his existing blonde hair colour as their restorative template, as it had not changed. In every other way, however, it was almost like looking at Harold Saxon as he had been before his botched resurrection – young and strong and healthy. His skin was unmarked, the familiar cuts and contusions from the beating he had received on Gallifrey now long gone. The weary, strained, gaunt look she remembered had also vanished from his face. Instead, it was completely empty, wiped clean of every emotion, like a blank slate waiting to be written on, his eyes closed.

Tejana swallowed back tears. In all the years she had known him, she had never seen him look so...lifeless. Even in death aboard _The Valiant, _his final expression had been one of triumph. Now his features were so perfectly composed that they were almost angelic in their austerity.

Oddly, she found herself thinking back to the time she had visited Manhattan with the Doctor and Martha, the silly words to the showgirl Tallulah's sentimental song echoing in her mind:

_My bad, bad angel...you put the Devil in me..._

Slowly, hesitantly, she put out her hand and gently touched his cheek, feeling the rough stubble under her fingertips, remembering how it had felt when he kissed her.

_My bad, bad angel..._

"Koschei? Koschei, it's Ana, can you hear me?"

* * *

The Master was in hell. Once, he had told the Doctor that hell was his kind of world. Now he knew how wrong he had been.

The worst part was the way they had kept him aware as they possessed his mind. Just one small spark of consciousness, trapped and helpless, as they sifted through his brain, taking what they wanted without mercy, ravaging and violating, invading his most private thoughts and dreams, enjoying his anguished struggles as he sought uselessly to prevent them.

Then, a woman's cold laughter as the darkest and most hurtful memories from his past were dragged out and he was forced to live them all over again. He could feel her pleasure as he suffered, gleefully drinking in every exquisite drop of his agony.

"Who are you?" he demanded weakly. "What do you want?"

"I own you, my pretty toy," she had responded in icy amusement. "I am your Mistress. I am your teacher. I am Pain."

Confined within the prison of his own mind, he had beaten fruitlessly at the invisible barriers holding him in, screaming over and over for someone to release him, someone to save him.

"Nobody will save you," the woman's voice had mocked. "Who would even care? The Time Lords? They betrayed you, destroyed you as a child. Now they are all dead, Gallifrey itself nothing but pitiful, lonely dust scattered to the four corners of the Universe! Your once-friend, the Doctor? He has offered to help you, so many times. But so many times you have refused, so many times you have hurt him. He has a new regeneration now, a new life, he never even thinks of you! Your beautiful Ana, the Doctor's daughter? She left you to die alone, abandoned in space and time. She is safe on Earth, in the arms of her lover, Handsome Jack – together they laugh at you! Noone is coming, my dear, not now and not ever. You belong to me."

"No!" he shouted. "NO!"

Adrift on a never-ending sea of pain, he still kept calling, refusing to give up, refusing to let go.

But then, amazingly, miraculously, he heard it.

_Koschei? Koschei, it's Ana, can you hear me?_

Frantically, he threw himself at the walls of his mental prison, desperate to make contact with her.

"Ana! Ana, I'm here! ANA!"

"She can't help you, Time Lord," the cold voice hissed derisively. "When the Master dances, he dances with Pain!"

And for the first time in his long life, the Master's soul chilled in absolute and irredeemable despair.

* * *

There was not even a flicker of response on his still face.

"Koschei..." she tried again. "You need to wake up!"

"Such a pretty toy, is he not?" came Odyne's malevolent voice, ratcheting up Tejana's spine like a jagged blade. "I wondered how long it would be before you came to play with us."

The Time Lady's chin came up proudly and her body stiffened as she slowly and deliberately turned to face the female Eternal.

"Let him go, Odyne," she articulated quietly, her tone iron-hard with threat. "NOW!"

"Time Lords and their ultimatums!" Odyne scoffed merrily. "So unfriendly. But I'm not selfish. I'm happy to share!"

Abruptly, without warning, the Master sat up. Tejana instinctively backed away, momentarily startled. His eyes snapped open. But all the emotions she remembered in his brown gaze – the anger, the mockery, the humour, the cunning, the desire – all of it was completely gone. All she saw now was a blank, empty, soulless stare.

"After all," Odyne continued in amusement. "In his memories, you two make such a _passionate _couple. And I do so love to watch. We can all play together!"

Tejana ignored her, focussing her attention on the motionless Master. "Koschei, listen to me. You have to listen. You have to wake up."

"Come here, Ana," he said, his voice a flat, unnatural rasp which sent a shiver right through her.

Odyne chuckled. "He fights me yet. He doesn't want to harm you. How delicious!"

The Master got jerkily to his feet and took several steps towards Tejana, walking with a slow, shambling gait nothing like his usual cat-like grace. Tejana moved back in horror, sickened by his resemblance to an animated corpse.

"You _bitch_!" she bit out savagely. "_Let him go_!"

"Hush now!" the Master intoned eerily. "Listen to your Master!"

Tejana ducked as he reached for her, just managing to slip away under his outstretched arms. He was herding her back towards the wall, where she would have nowhere to go.

"Your choice, Time Lady," Odyne snarled, her tone as cutting as a whip. "You can leave now and lose him forever. But if you choose to stay, you choose to play!"

The Master continued to move towards Tejana, attempting to pin her against one of the crystal columns. Once again, she just managed to avoid being caught. This time, however, she was able to surreptitiously position herself closer and closer to the watching Eternal as she backed away from him. She would only get one shot at this. She had to make it count.

"Two things you should know about me, Odyne," she said viciously. "Firstly, I don't play nicely with others. Secondly, when it comes to this particular toy, I have no intention of sharing...ever!"

With that, she whirled around and unstrapped the cover from the vortex manipulator, releasing a concentrated beam of artron energy. The blaze of golden light sliced through the gleaming silver figure like a knife through butter. Odyne screamed in agony, her evanescent body convulsing violently as the golden light permeated the silver, before exploding into a billion tiny rainbow prisms, which scattered through the air like droplets of multi-coloured rain and then disappeared.

Tejana closed her eyes in relief. That had definitely been a spectacular exit! Unfortunately, their reprieve was only temporary. Odyne would soon recover and the trick would not work a second time. Also, she had absolutely no idea where the other two Eternals were. Her time was running out.

Deprived of Odyne's will to animate his catatonic body, the Master had fallen to his knees and was staring blankly into space.

"Listen to your Master!" came the hollow refrain, his mouth repeating the last words Odyne had given him, like some bizarre recording. "Listen to your Master!"

Tejana came to kneel in front of him. "Oh gods, Koschei, what have they done to you?" she whispered brokenly, cupping his unresponsive face in her hands.

She knew now that there was no reaching him. Whatever was left of him was so deeply buried that he would never be able to free himself.

Inadvertently, Odyne had given her some hope. _He fights me yet..._

But the only way to bring him out, the only way to restore him, was to go in and get him. It went against every principle she had ever had. To enter someone's mind without their permission, to take something that should be freely shared, was an unacceptable violation under any circumstances, making her no better than the Eternals themselves.

If she was honest, though, that was not the real reason she hesitated. The real reason was fear, pure and unadulterated, both for herself and for the Master.

Attempting to travel the tangled and overgrown pathways of another person's mind was always fraught with danger, littered as they always were with hidden thoughts, lost dreams and buried memories. But to enter the Master's mind...as Odyne had said, so dark, so full of shadow, pain and torment...she could so easily go astray and wander in there forever, trapped for the rest of her life. And if she did one thing wrong, just one small thing, she ran the risk of extinguishing completely the little that remained of him.

"I'm sorry, Koschei, but I have to do this," she told him. "_We_ have to do it, together."

Then she brought their foreheads together and drove her mind into his with the force of a battering ram.


	10. Chapter 10

**_Author's Note:_**

**_Wow, four reviews for the last chapter, how exciting! Thanks very much to Omniac, Strange and Sad Angel, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei and KoscheithePianist, it was just great to hear from you all. Hope you enjoy this chapter too!_**

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**CHAPTER 10**

It was like falling into a deep, black, never ending well, full of ice and fire and a soulless darkness. The emptiness sucked her down, plummeting into the yawning pit until it felt like she was dropping into a black hole, the bottomless abyss between the stars.

But then she opened her eyes and she was standing in a field of long, red grass, lush and beautiful, waving in the breeze. She looked around her warily. It was Gallifrey and yet not Gallifrey, a haunting, intensified dream-scape, familiar and yet strange, as though drawn from a child's over-embellished memory.

Nearby stood what appeared to be a young boy. He had his back to her, his face turned up to the infinite canopy of orange sky which stretched overhead, his hands palm down, lightly smoothing the blades of grass under his touch. He had short dark hair and was dressed in a black acolyte's robe, reminiscent of her own early days at the Academy on Gallifrey.

"Hello?" she ventured uncertainly.

He turned around slowly and she saw his round, childish face, the wide blue eyes full of frightened tears. With a stab of sudden compassion, she realised that this was the innocent child the Master had been, long ago, before Rassilon's betrayal had crippled and twisted and corrupted his life.

_So many things should have been different...so many..._

"Koschei?" she said softly. "It's going to be all right, I promise. Take my hands...and don't let go!"

Trustingly, he placed his hands in hers. She grasped them tightly and together they gyred away into the night.

Inexorably, beating like vulture wings around her head, his memories began to attack them, thick and fast.

* * *

_**FEAR**...the dark, the long walk, ancient Time Lords both behind and in front of him, supposedly a guard of honour, but really just a guard, to stop him running. Eight years old, taking him for initiation, to stare into the Untempered Schism. He was afraid, so very afraid. He'd heard of the children who went mad when they looked. He didn't want to. He wanted to go home. He wanted to run in the fields of red grass with his friend Theta, calling up at the sky. He wanted his mother. But the Time Lords led him there, stood him in front of the gap in reality and he looked. He saw it, the immense and awesome and terrifying majesty of Time itself. And, within the silence of the stars, he heard it, his own double heartbeat, pounding in his ears, louder and louder, like a drum beat, calling to him, HURTING him...one two three four...one two three four...one two three four..._

_**PAIN**...Standing in the Great Hall of his father's manor. His father's face, stern and unrelenting, cold and distant. His mother crying bitterly. His father's voice, "You have brought shame to this house. You are no longer welcome here. I banish you." _

_Pain twisting his stomach, pain of rejection, pain of loss. Once he had been their greatest hope, the boy with the highest marks ever at the Academy, the boy most likely to be Lord President one day...how had it gone so wrong?_

"_You are dead to me, Koschei, I no longer have a son!"_

_Pride coming to his rescue, stiffening his spine, throwing defiance in their faces, the drums pounding relentlessly in his head. "My NAME is...the Master!"_

_

* * *

_

Trying to tune out the mental barrage, Tejana tightened her grip on the small hands and began to pull, backwards through the darkness, doggedly dragging him up to the light.

* * *

_**FEAR**...Fighting the Last Great Time War, resurrected by Rassilon to be the perfect warrior, because he knew so well how to kill and kill and kill again, without compunction and without mercy. Entrusted with the defence of the Cruciform, told that if it was lost, Gallifrey was lost also. But the Daleks were so many, thousands upon thousands, always more, no matter how many the Time Lords destroyed. They had no chance, they couldn't win, they had been sent on a suicide mission. He was afraid, so afraid, the gut-wrenching terror curdling in his stomach as the others fell around him, a nightmarish vision of what the Universe was to become. And then the Dalek Emperor came on board. He saw it and knew that he had to run, run like a coward, run so far they would never find him. Never die, never die, never never die..._

_**PAIN**...The Chameleon Arch, rewriting his molecular structure. Excruciating agony, the tearing away of the triple strand in his DNA, one of his hearts stopping, shrivelling, disappearing, every cell reforming and changing. Becoming that thing he hated, loathed, despised above all else, becoming _human_..._

_

* * *

_

The child was becoming heavier, the memories clutching at him, clawing at him like vicious skeletal hands, weighing him down, pulling him back into the abyss. Gritting her teeth, Tejana clung even harder, determined not to let go.

* * *

_**FEAR**...Standing on the flight deck of _The Valiant, _the Doctor levitating above him, upheld by the glowing telepathic field, floating towards him. "No, you can't do this. You can't - it's not FAIR!"_

"_I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...but you know what happens now."_

_He didn't want to hear it, couldn't bear to hear it, not from the Doctor, not from his old friend Theta – he didn't have the RIGHT..._

"_No! No! No!"_

"_Because you wouldn't listen."_

_Cringing away, curled into a terrified ball, huddled against the wall as his enemy came closer and closer and closer. "NO!"_

"_But you know what I'm going to say now."_

_Damn the Doctor, why did he have to care so much, why couldn't he hate, why couldn't he make things easier? Didn't the fool realise they couldn't go back, even if they wanted to, it was too late, too late...The drums, eviscerating his head, the Doctor's arms around him, comforting him as yet again his plans fell apart._

"_I forgive you."_

_**PAIN**...The bullet, Lucy's bullet, deep within his chest, exploding one of his hearts. Fierce agony, radiating through his body, the other heart failing, limping towards death. Gasping for breath, falling to the floor, the Doctor cradling him like a baby. Just like when they were kids, Theta always there to catch him when he fell._

"_Always the women."_

_**DEATH**...Slipping away, darkness coming, pain and then more pain, resisting the regeneration. Never die, never die...channelling his energy, his essence, into the ring, his one chance, his only chance..._

_The Doctor howling in his ear, "REGENERATE!"_

_The drums, the damn drums, always driving him, forcing him to crush, to destroy, to hurt..._

"_How about that? I win!"_

_I hurt you, Doctor, and finally I win...wasn't that what it was always about? Winning? Wasn't it?_

_Vision fading, breathing laboured, the Doctor's tears falling on his face, his old friend's agonised expression the last thing he sees._

"_Will it stop now, Doctor? The drumming? Will it stop?"_

_

* * *

_

Heavier and heavier and heavier. Tejana was tiring, the darkness around her leeching away her own light. What she was doing was so wrong, such a grievous offence against him, a complete violation. She had no right to these memories, his most sequestered thoughts. They seemed to literally burn her skin as they slipped past her, swirling endlessly in the fathomless vortex of his consciousness. In saving him, she knew she was morally damning herself, but she had no choice. Redoubling her efforts, she fought harder, straining against the dreadful burden of the child, striving for the light.

Don't let go, Koschei...don't ever let go!

* * *

_**FEAR**...Light coruscating, strength infusing his veins, renewing him, his disciples dying around him as he rose again, draining their pitiful essences so that he might live. Lucy, defying him, hating him, wanting him dead, the lethal potion in her hands._

"_Lucy, you will obey me!"_

_Terror, rising within him, as he realised what the potion meant, what it could do to him – she wouldn't do it, couldn't do it, he had chosen her, shaped and formed her, his faithful companion..._

"_'Til death do us part, Harry!"_

_An explosion, fire slicing into him, howling agony, his body rending, tearing, ripping wide open, his life energy spilling out into oblivion..._

_**PAIN**...Lying on the floor in the Naismith mansion, beside the ruin of the machine he had built to bring the Time Lords to Earth. Awful, bitter realisation that his own people had crippled him, broken him, as a child. Rassilon, whom he had once revered, had done this to him and now was tossing him aside like a piece of diseased garbage. Hatred. Pain. The never-ending beating of the cursed drums. He'd had a home, a family, friends, a future.. now he had nothing, now he WAS nothing, King of the Wasteland..._

"_You'll die with me, Doctor."_

"_I know."_

_One last thing he could do, one thing to make up for all the things that should have been different, one thing to turn back the clock..._

"_Get out of the way!"_

_Goodbye, Theta..._

"_You did this to me...all of my life...you MADE me!"_

_Pouring his rage, his defiance, his LOATHING, into Rassilon's body, his own life energy, each blast burning him from the inside out, like the scorching heat of a thousand suns..._

"_One...two...three...FOUR!"_

_**DEATH**...Ana had gone, left him to die, spinning eternally through space in Rassilon's old TARDIS, alone and abandoned. Skipped off back to Earth, back to the Doctor, back to Handsome Jack, even though he had saved her, had saved everything. Always the women! So close to death now, can't move, can't see, hardly breathing. No second chances this time, no cunning plan, no pain even, just the encroaching numbness. Even the drums had deserted him, fading into nothingness as Gallifrey had died, the signal forever cancelled, leaving him in a silence he could not even begin to comprehend. Tears on his face, wishing Ana had stayed, at least until he was dead. He wanted to feel her arms around him at the end. He was so tired of being alone. Darkness now, nothing but the cold and the dark and the loneliness..._

_

* * *

_

The last memory nearly broke Tejana, the guilt and the regret and the exhaustion causing her concentration to waver. She could feel the child's hands slipping away, she was losing him.. He would fall back down that long, black shaft, gone forever.

"No!" she screamed. "No, no no!"

She summoned one last effort of will, one last massive wrench, hauling the child backwards, ripping them both out of the writhing wilderness of the Master's mind.

And then she was free. She could feel the hard floor under her knees, his face cradled in her hands, his forehead pressed against hers.

Her eyes opened, desperately searching his face, looking for some expression, some emotion, some sign that he had returned with her. But there was nothing. His features remained as vacant and absent as they had been before.

With sick horror, the defeated realisation twisted through her like the blade of a knife.

She had left him behind...again.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Author's Note**_: _A big thanks to Omniac, Strange but Sad Angel and Jiwa for your reviews - I really love to hear your opinions! Hope you enjoy this chapter too (had some writer's block with this one!)_

* * *

**CHAPTER 11**

For a long, interminable moment, stretching like an unending scream, Tejana sat motionless, her forehead still resting against the Master's, her eyes closed, the bitter sting of failure numbing her mind. What should she do? Even if he hadn't fallen far beyond her reach, back into the dark places of his mind, she just wasn't strong enough to try again. Perhaps if she could somehow get him back to her father's TARDIS, the Doctor could do something to help...

Without warning, she felt strong hands seize her upper arms in a bruising, vice-like grip. Her eyes snapped open, instinctively beginning to struggle, immediately alarmed that Odyne had returned and resumed her zombie-like control of the Master.

But then she realised that the brown eyes looking into hers were intent and focussed, fully alert and aware.

"Ana..." he said, his voice hoarse from disuse, but unmistakeably his own.

"You're back!" she whispered in sheer, overwhelming relief. "Oh stars, you're really back!"

The Master did not reply. Instead, he slid one hand behind her neck to tangle ruthlessly in her hair, while his mouth came down on hers in a kiss which was both hungry and persuasive. Tejana shivered, her lips softening involuntarily under his, the slow, familiar heat instantly beginning to sear through her body. In that moment she knew that whatever had been born between them in The Matrix was still very much alive. Insane though it was, beyond any explanation or justification, kissing the Master was like coming in out of the cold, like being welcomed home to the place she had forever been seeking. As before, his touch drove every rational thought from her mind as she wound her arms around his neck, wanting more, needing more...

Suddenly, it was over. The Master pulled savagely away from her, his hands clutching at his head with a guttural groan of pain. Fear tore at her as she watched him stumble to his feet and begin to back away.

"Koschei? What is it? What's wrong?"

_Oh gods, had she pushed too hard while inside his mind, done something wrong, damaged him somehow?_

He was shaking his head, over and over, as though trying to dislodge something unfamiliar, something alien.

"There's only silence!" he rasped incredulously. "In my head! I can't hear anything. Where are the drums? Where are they, Ana? _WHERE ARE THE DRUMS_?"

Tejana stared at him in shock, suddenly understanding. The drums had been a part of his life since he was eight years old, forever pounding out the incessant four-beat rhythm, never giving him peace. He had never heard silence before, he had no memory or even comprehension of what it meant. The unaccustomed feeling must be almost more painful for him than the drums themselves – at least he had been used to those!

"Rassilon's dead, Koschei," she said gently. "Don't you remember? Gallifrey, the Time Lords, all of it, all gone...the signal has been cancelled. There _are_ no more drums."

"No more drums," he murmured, as though trying to convince himself that it was real. Then he threw his arms wide in a helpless gesture and began to laugh wildly, the insane merriment edged with anguish. "_No more drums_! So what exactly am I supposed to do now?"

"Whatever you want," she answered softly. "It's your choice now."

He looked uncertainly down at his hands, flexing his fingers, as if expecting to see the blue-white energy sparkling and dancing there. "No more lightning bolts either."

"Three Eternals found you...the Dark Triumvirate...they healed you with nanogene technology," she explained. "You're not seeping life energy any more. They made your body whole again."

He grimaced wryly. "I'm gonna miss those." His eyes flicked back to lock with hers and his expression hardened, his face tight with bitterness. "You left me. You disappeared back to Earth and left me to die."

Tejana rose unsteadily to her feet and stood facing him, meeting his accusing gaze without flinching. "No, I didn't. As soon as Rassilon died, the vortex manipulator dragged me back through the Time Vortex. I tried to grab your hand, to take you with me, but I couldn't hold on to you and I lost you. The Time Lock had wiped all record of the coordinates – I couldn't get back. I had no idea if you were alive or dead. If I'd had a choice, I would never, ever have left you."

The Master glared at her silently for a moment, clearly trying to decide if she was telling him the truth. Then he tilted his head, as though listening to something.

"Rassilon's TARDIS!" he muttered. Abruptly, he seized her hand and began pulling her towards the crystal pillar which concealed the ancient time machine. "You can make it up to me later. Right now, we're getting out of here, before that bitch Odyne comes back."

Automatically, Tejana resisted, digging her heels in and pulling back in the other direction. "No, we can't leave! We have to stop them, before they destroy everything. The Doctor has a plan...he needs us, _both_ of us!"

"The Doctor!" he exclaimed harshly.

Mindful of the possibility of listening ears, Tejana used the last bit of psychic energy she had left and opened the mental gate between them, allowing him to see all the Eternals had done, the prophecy made by the Cult of Saxon and the Doctor's interpretation of it.

The Master's eyes widened as he absorbed it all, instantly understanding how dangerous the Doctor's plan really was. Then his expression darkened with anger and his hands grasped her wrists cruelly, holding them tightly together in front of her.

"Ohhhh, I get it!" he growled, pulling her close to him, his lower lip curled in scorn. "Now I see. So _that's_ what this little rescue mission was about all along. The Doctor needs me for his big plan to save the Universe. So who should come to get me but Daddy's little girl, doing just what she's told, as usual!"

"That's not true!" she gritted out, unwilling to show how much his iron grip was hurting her. "I would have come back for you anyway."

"Oh yeah?" he sneered. "And I suppose you're going to tell me your oh-so-handsome Captain Freak isn't one of your band of Merry Men?"

"_Yes_, Jack's here – he was the one who discovered the Eternals were draining the Rift in the first place. What's that got to do with anything?" she snapped fiercely. "We have to stop them. They've been in your head, you _know_ what they're like. If the Doctor's plan doesn't work, they're going to kill millions and millions of people!"

"Tough!" the Master spat furiously. "Why should I care what happens to this loathsome little planet?"

With that, he gave a violent twist and flung her wrists aside in a gesture of complete contempt. Unprepared, Tejana lost her footing on the smooth quartz floor and fell heavily to the ground, her legs crumpling painfully under her.

"I think I've put myself on the line more than enough lately for you and Daddy dearest!" he snarled, standing menacingly over her. "This time it really is _my turn_! I have a newly-healed, strong body, a TARDIS of my own and the damn drums have finally stopped. As you said, I can do whatever I want! And what I want is to leave,_ right now_. You and the Doctor are on your own, so good luck with that!"

He turned and strode swiftly away, heading towards Rassilon's TARDIS.

"No!" Tejana cried. "Koschei, wait! Please, you have to listen..."

He paused for a brief moment and looked back over his shoulder at her, his face implacable with rejection.

"My name..._is_ _the Master_!" he said coldly.

Then he disappeared inside the TARDIS. Exhausted and heartsick, she watched the time machine de-materialise, leaving her alone in the room. Unconsciously, her hand slid around her right ankle, covering the place scarred with his hand-print in an almost comforting gesture as she fought back the scalding tears.

Jack had been right all along. The Master had never cared for anybody or anything except himself. Why had she ever thought it might end any differently? Why did she even feel so betrayed? He was the Master, this was what he did.

Sudden rage welled up in her throat.

"Damn you!" she screamed at the empty place where the TARDIS had been. "Damn you to hell, you selfish bastard!"

Determinedly, she forced herself to climb to her feet. She had already wasted too many precious tears on the Master this past year – no more. She had gone back for him and now her debt was paid. She owed him nothing. They didn't need him to defeat the Eternals. The Doctor would figure something out, he always did.

And as for Tejana, she definitely didn't need him for anything at all – not now and not ever!

* * *

"Right then. The thing about Huon Particles is that they attract each other," the Doctor instructed his two companions. "So, if my theory is correct – and my theories usually are – if, on my signal, you open the Heart of the TARDIS, using this lever, the particles should flow out and be immediately drawn to the only other cache of Huon particles available."

"Time Lord DNA," Jack nodded.

"Exactly. So, the three of us become infused with Huon energy and absorb the Eternals through into the Void," the Doctor said. "Then comes the tricky part."

"Oh, _then _comes the tricky part!" Amy interjected sarcastically. "Like it wasn't tricky already."

The Doctor gave her a repressive look and then continued as if she hadn't spoken. "Once the Eternals are gone, you'll need to immediately reverse the flow of particles back into the Heart of the TARDIS by pulling this other lever."

"That doesn't sound too difficult," Jack shrugged.

"It's not. The difficult part is ensuring you leave it in the reverse position for thirty seconds only, no more and no less. That should be long enough for the particles to be reabsorbed harmlessly back into the TARDIS."

"What happens if he leaves it too long?" Amy asked, a frown furrowing her forehead.

"The TARDIS will continue to attract the particles until there are none left," the Doctor answered grimly. "Including the ones naturally entwined in our DNA. Our molecular structure would unravel and collapse. Not the most pleasant way to die."

Amy shuddered, his words conjuring up a host of unwelcome images in her fertile imagination.

"So, after exactly thirty seconds, you need to depress both levers simultaneously, which will close the Heart of the TARDIS and return everything to normal, including us, all being well," the Doctor finished cheerfully.

"What's to stop the Eternals escaping?" Jack inquired. "They seem to materialise and de-materialise whenever they feel like it."

"Huon particles are so powerful, they nullify all other localised forms of energy. That's one of the reasons the Time Lords destroyed them all in the first place. Once the particles begin diffusing, the Eternals will lose the ability to de-materialise," the Doctor replied. "Now, one last, very, very absolutely totally important thing! Do _not_, whatever you do, either of you, go down under the TARDIS console while the Heart is open. There will be _no_ looking into the Time Vortex, is that understood? Things are already serious enough without having another Bad Wolf to deal with today on top of everything else."

"Amen to that!" Jack said fervently, remembering back to the day Rose had inadvertently made him an immortal while possessed by the Bad Wolf entity.

"What's a Bad Wolf?" Amy asked in a confused voice.

Jack shook his head emphatically. "You don't want to know. Take it from me, just do what he says and don't look into the Heart."

Suddenly, the outer doors opened and Tejana appeared, her delicate features etched with weariness. Jack leapt down the stairs and threw his arm around her, catching her as her balance wavered. Gratefully, she buried her face in the rough, familiar material of the shoulder of his great-coat, as though absorbing new strength from his solid bulk. Like the Doctor, she had once found it very unsettling to be around Jack after his reincarnation as an immortal. As a fixed point in time, he was an acute anathema to any time-sensitive being. Nowadays, she scarcely noticed it. He was just..._Jack_...forever and always comfortingly the same.

"Are you all right?" he demanded urgently. "What happened?"

She nodded tiredly. "I'm fine. I've just got a bit of a headache, thanks to a little tussle with Odyne."

Unstrapping the vortex manipulator from her wrist, she handed it back to him with a small, grateful smile. The Doctor came towards her, studying her closely, his sharp eyes noting the dried tears which streaked her face. "Where's the Master?"

Her mouth tightened into a thin line. "He's not coming. He left in Rassilon's TARDIS - had something better to do, apparently."

"Gee, what a surprise!" Jack growled.

The Doctor's face clouded with disappointment tinged with sadness. "I suppose it was always on the cards. Although, I thought he might realise we need to stop them now, before they become too powerful. Otherwise nowhere in the Universe will be safe, especially for Time Lords. After what happened with Rassilon, I hoped he might..."

"Might what, Doctor?" Jack asked sarcastically. "That he might have changed? Oh yeah, they'll be serving ice-cream in hell on that day!"

"What do we do now?" Amy said worriedly. "Doctor, you said we needed him. Will the plan still work?"

"The plan still stands!" Tejana retorted. "We can do it without him, just with two Time Lords instead of three."

"Not 'we'," the Doctor replied bleakly. "Me. Just me."

His daughter looked at him incredulously. "_What_?"

"Tejana, you can barely stand up. You're staying in the TARDIS with Jack and Amy. The plan was hazardous enough even with the Master. Without him...I won't put you at risk as well. If I fail, you and Jack and the rest of Torchwood will need to do the best you can to safeguard the Earth."

"Are you telling me you intend to try to absorb enough Huon particles to transfer three Eternals into the Void _by yourself_?" she asked, her voice dangerously even.

"They won't even see me coming," the Doctor answered with a crooked smile. "The Oncoming Storm, remember?"

That was the last straw. Tejana lost her temper. Bloody pig-headed, autocratic, egotistical Time Lords, she had totally, absolutely and completely had enough of them for one day, both of them!

Moving away from Jack's encircling arm, she stood toe-to-toe with her father, looking up into his face with eyes blazing with anger and pride. "I...am...the last Time Lady of Gallifrey!" she said vehemently. "If you think, for _one minute_, that I am going to let you go out there by yourself, you had better _damn _well think again!"

For a moment suspended in time they stood, locked in a silent battle of wills. Tejana refused to back down. One thing she had definitely inherited from her father was his innate and infinite stubbornness. Finally, grudgingly, the Doctor capitulated.

"All right, you win," he said reluctantly. "We'll do it together. But I want it on the record that it's against my better judgement! Come on then, let's go over it all one more time."

Moving quickly now, the Doctor and Tejana double-checked all the jury-rigging of the TARDIS systems and then went through all the stages of the plan with Jack and Amy again. At last they were ready.

"OK," the Doctor said, running his hands through his floppy hair. "Time for the solid organic waste to collide with the rotational air circulation device."

Amy looked at him in confusion. "Huh?"

Jack gave a snort of laughter. "He means it's time for the shit to hit the fan."

Amy stepped forward and enveloped the Doctor in a tight, fierce hug.

"You're an idiot!" she told him, her voice cracked with emotion. "You just make sure you come back safely to me, all right?"

Her gaze flicked over to Tejana. "Both of you!"

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jack pulled Tejana back into his arms and kissed her thoroughly, leaving her indignantly gasping for air. Then he turned to the Doctor, who put his hands up defensively.

"Oh no you don't!"

Jack grinned. "I know, I know...not without buying you a drink first!"

Then his face sobered and he snapped another martial salute. "Good luck, Sir!"

"And to you, Captain," the Doctor nodded. "Remember, whatever happens, neither of you are to leave the TARDIS under any circumstances. If the worst comes to the worst, the TARDIS emergency program will return you both to the Hub."

He turned to his daughter. "Ready?"

"Yes."

He hesitated for a moment, then put his hands on her shoulders, looking intently into her face. "You know, my predecessor's not the only one to love you and feel proud of you," he said quietly. "I do too."

Tejana's eyes sparkled with unshed tears as she returned his gaze. She knew that there was every chance that they were not coming back from this. In this final extremity, for the first time since his regeneration, she realised at last that the shadow of Ten no longer stood between them.

"I know," she whispered. "Right back at you."

"Geronimo, then?" he asked with a smile.

"Geronimo!" she agreed.

And together they walked outside to face the unknown.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Another big wave to Omniac and to Strange and Sad Angel – thanks so much for your ongoing comments, it's great to know you are still sticking with me, woo hoo!**_

_**Also, thanks to soro1010 – really glad you have enjoyed it so far :0)**_

_**

* * *

**_**CHAPTER 12**

The silence on the flight deck of the Psionic ship seemed unnatural and ominous. Tejana flexed her stiff shoulders, trying to ease the acute headache boring into her forehead. Although she would never admit it to the Doctor, her efforts to save the Master had left her feeling weak and sick. She was also very afraid. Of all the insanely dangerous things she had followed the Doctor into, this one had to be pretty close to the top of the list. Sometimes being a Time Lord was simply not fun at all.

"Are you just going to call them again?" she whispered apprehensively.

"Why not? It worked last time," the Doctor responded in a brisk, no-nonsense tone.

He opened his mouth, ready to shout, when Tejana suddenly tensed in disbelief, both of her hearts turning over at once.

"Wait!" she hissed. "Listen!"

Faintly at first, then growing louder and louder, they heard the unmistakeable wheezing, groaning sound of a TARDIS re-materialising.

"It can't be!" Tejana gasped in complete astonishment. "Can it?"

A jubilant grin spread over the Doctor's face. "He's coming back – he's actually coming back! And how about that? One of the most brilliant temporal engineers Gallifrey ever produced and he leaves his brakes on too. So there, in your face, River!"

Tejana shot him a mystified look. "Sorry?"

"Never mind!" the Doctor added hastily. "Just something River Song said to me once...annoying woman!"

As he spoke, they saw the distinct outline of a second blue police box materialising across the room from the Doctor's own TARDIS, its chameleon circuit automatically scanning and replicating the only sizeable object in the room. Before long, the Master emerged, pulling a disgusted face as he saw the new outer image his TARDIS had assumed. Then he crossed the room towards them.

"Master," the Doctor greeted him warily.

The Master nodded sardonically. "Doctor."

"Nice of you to show up. Better late than never, I suppose."

The Master gave an impassive shrug. "Yeah, well, just so you know, I didn't do it for you," he retorted, casting an assessing glance sideways at Tejana, who returned it frostily.

Then his gaze reverted to the Doctor, insolently sweeping him up and down. "So this is the new regeneration. Must have been a bit of a disappointment."

The Doctor snorted with annoyance. "Considering some of the shockers you've had over the years, that's a bit like the pot calling the kettle black, isn't it?"

"At least I never wore a bow tie," the Master scoffed, his brown eyes razor-sharp with mockery. "The first time you did it was bad enough, twice is just ridiculous."

"Bow ties are cool," the Doctor asserted huffily. "Better than that rubbish beard you used to have, that's for sure."

The Master laughed. "You just keep telling yourself that, Doctor."

"Oh gee, must be my lucky day," the Doctor said in an acerbic tone. "I get to take fashion advice from a bloke who dresses like a homeless person."

Tejana stared at them, watching them bicker back and forth like a pair of truculent children. The Doctor and the Master, for so long the polar opposites of her world, absolute good and absolute evil, the immutable flip sides of the same coin.

But somehow, the Time War had changed all that, just as it had changed so many other things. In the depths of the horrors of war, black and white had unexpectedly transformed into infinite shades of grey. The Doctor had looked into his soul and found unsuspected darkness, the iron will required to do the unthinkable, the vainglorious arrogance needed to play god and the innate capacity to kill. The egotistical Master had been taught self-doubt when he ran from the Daleks at the Battle of the Cruciform, he had suffered the cruel sting of betrayal from his own people, and maybe - _just maybe_ - he had learnt that some things are worth dying for after all.

"Not that I want to interrupt you, or anything," she cut in sarcastically. "But do you think you two could perhaps butt heads later? We do have a bit on right now, if you recall?"

"Good point," the Doctor conceded. "Time to open a can of kick-butt! Da Time Lords are in da house!"

With that, he turned and walked back to the centre of the room with his characteristic, cock-sure, slightly bow-legged stride.

The Master raised his eyebrows and shot Tejana a look of pained incredulity. She had to stifle a giggle. One of the more irritating characteristics her father had acquired with his new regeneration was a consistent tendency to think he was being the epitome of cool when he most decidedly was not. Since this didn't look like changing any time soon, the Master would just have to learn to get over it like everybody else.

* * *

Inside the Doctor's TARDIS, Amy had activated the exterior scanner, eagerly watching for the Doctor and Tejana on the huge round screen while nervously nibbling at her long, purple-painted nails.

Suddenly she sat up straight in surprise. "Jack, there's someone else out there with them!"

Jack looked up to the screen from the console and his expression darkened. "Well, well, look what the cat dragged in," he said contemptuously. "If it isn't my old buddy, the Master!"

"He came after all!" Amy exclaimed delightedly. "But that's a good thing, isn't it?"

Jack's mouth twisted ironically. "You ever hear that old Earth saying about the two things that are certain in life?"

"Yeah, death and taxes, so what?"

"You can add a third thing to that list - the Master turning up is never, _ever_ a good thing!"

"Perhaps the Doctor's right, perhaps he's changed from when you knew him before?" Amy suggested hopefully.

"Not a chance!" Jack replied grimly. "Which leaves the question – if he's back, just what's in it for him?"

* * *

The Doctor stood in front of the transparent cylinder of nanogenes, flanked on the left by the Master and on the right by Tejana, their backs to the Doctor's TARDIS. All the levity had evaporated from their faces, leaving behind only deadly and concentrated purpose.

"DEIMOS! ODYNE! THANATOS!" the Doctor shouted, his voice powerful and resounding in the silence, carrying an arrogant tone of undeniable command.

As before, a wondrous shimmering announced the imminent arrival of the Eternals. The trio of imposing figures appeared once more in a flood of silver light, startling in their glory.

"So, Doctor...you have returned," Thanatos said imperiously. "And numbering three Time Lords this time, I see. Lady Tejana, my colleague Odyne is less than pleased with you for depriving her of her favourite toy."

"Odyne needs to learn to keep her hands off things that don't belong to her," Tejana answered coldly.

"It matters little, since soon I will have not one, but three Time Lord toys to play with...and then you will _all_ know what pain really is," Odyne sneered.

"You think?" the Master snarled menacingly. "You got your first shot at me for free. The next one's gonna cost you."

"Such threatening words from such insignificant creatures," Deimos smirked.

"Hardly insignificant," the Doctor replied sternly. "We are the last of the Time Lords. The Laws of Time belong to us and us alone. And if you want to refer that to a higher authority, you can't..._there is no higher authority_. So, I ask you once more, are you prepared to leave peacefully?"

"We refuse, Time Lord," Thanatos answered with acute malevolence. "We will crush you and your Laws of Time along with the rest of this pathetic Universe."

"Then I have just two words to say..." the Doctor continued. "_NOW, JACK_!"

Behind them, Amy threw open the TARDIS doors. With an intense effort, Tejana fought past the debilitating headache and accessed the psychic link to reach for the minds of the other two Time Lords, even as beside her they did the same. For a fleeting second, she found the Master first. Feather-light, his mind stroked hers, a deliberate, potent and sensual caress she felt right through her being, a hundred times more intimate than a physical touch could ever be, leaving her momentarily shaken and disoriented. Then the Doctor's steadying presence joined the link, solidifying the three-way mental connection, transforming them into a single, purposeful entity. For the first time ever, they stood united, the only surviving Children of Gallifrey, allied in the face of their common enemy.

_The three who remain must stand as one_...

On cue, Jack threw the required lever and, down below the console of the time machine, the silver sphere which housed the iridescent Heart of the TARDIS slowly began to open, the hatch sliding smoothly back to release the magnificent core of powerful Huon Particles embedded there. Effulgent golden light spilled out from the glowing orb, growing brighter and brighter as it pooled under the glass floor of the console platform, until Jack and Amy standing safely above had to turn their heads aside and shield their eyes.

Like a massive, swollen river filled with swirling and tumbling currents, the awesome flood of luminescence effused through the open TARDIS doors in an overwhelming rush. As the Doctor had predicted, the magnetic properties of the Huon Particles directed the mighty energy surge in an undeviating path towards the three Time Lords, engulfing them in an immense swell of aurulent light.

Tejana felt the deluge of power encompass her, striking her skin like liquid heat and then sliding through it, penetrating deep into the flesh and blood and bone beneath. The golden emanation seemed to flow fluidly through her veins like slow, hot honey. She shuddered wildly in exaltation, her pulses quickening as an undulating ripple of exhilaration revitalised her tired body, all her fear and weariness draining away, to be replaced instead by a sensation of elated invincibility. Her mental link with the Doctor and the Master tightened and clarified as all three became infused by the ancient particles, the union between them intensifying until it was almost painful. Tejana no longer knew where she ended and the other two began, so perfectly and absolutely were their minds merged.

On the exterior scanner, Jack and Amy watched in stunned amazement as the light illuminating the Time Lords grew and grew, the golden incandescence spreading in unending brilliance until it seemed to completely diminish the pale silver luminosity emanating from the Eternals.

"It's working!" Amy murmured in wonder. "It's really working!"

The three Eternals drew back uneasily, maintaining a defensive distance from the transfigured Time Lords, their composure visibly wavering for the first time.

"What is this?" Thanatos demanded angrily. "_WHAT IS THIS_?"

"Huon energy!" Odyne spat incredulously. "But that's not possible!"

"We are the Last of the Time Lords. For us, all things are possible," the Doctor responded flatly.

Inside the TARDIS, the audio function of the scanner replicated the sound perfectly for the watching humans.

"Oh my God..." Amy exclaimed in horror. "His voice..."

For although it was only the Doctor who physically spoke, the voice which emerged from his throat was not his usual light baritone. Instead it was a weird, multi-layered monotone, as though three voices spoke at once, male and female intonation entwined indistinguishably together.

"It's all of them," Jack replied in awe. "All three of the Time Lords psychically merged into one and speaking through the Doctor's mouth."

"Deimos, Odyne, Thanatos," the Doctor spoke again in the eerie, triple-toned voice . "The High Council of Gallifrey is no more. Therefore, as the only surviving Children of Gallifrey, the supreme authority and responsibility to judge you now rests with us. As punishment for your offence in wilfully undertaking an unprovoked attack on a Class 5 planet, we hereby sentence you to return to the Void, never to return to this Universe."

"You are fools!" Deimos shrieked. "Do you think we will leave, just like that? We will _annihilate_ you! This pathetic display of power will avail you _nothing_!"

"You forget," Thanatos added malignantly. "We have our own source of dark energy, freshly gathered from puny minds in the insignificant city below."

At his words, the pitch-dark cylinder of nanogenes behind them began to bubble and boil in an explosion of frenetic activity. The three Eternals threw their heads back as though in ecstasy, their silver emanence beginning to strengthen as they drew on the black energy contained in the cylinder, amplifying their own power in direct opposition to the blazing brilliance of their enemies.

In perfect unison, the Time Lords silently tilted their heads back, three pairs of eyes converging steadily on the receptacle containing the nanogenes. Deep within the swirling obsidian cloud, a tiny pulse of gold appeared, throbbing and growing, the lambent glow threading inexorably through the inky darkness.

"What's happening?" Amy demanded excitedly. "What are they doing?"

"I'm not sure," Jack said, frowning in concentration. "But this ship is run by mental energy. I think they're fighting for control of the nanogenes. If the Time Lords can cut the Eternals off from their power source, I'm guessing they should be able to send them back where they came from."

"And if they can't?"

"That wouldn't be good," Jack returned bleakly. "Not good at all."


	13. Chapter 13

_**Author's Note:**_

_**OMG, six reviews for the last chapter – you guys are spoiling me (does a happy dance!)**_

_**Very big thanks to KoscheithePianist, soro1010, xxTeam-Masterxx, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, Strange and Sad Angel and Omniac – I'm having major writer's block at the moment, which is stressing me, so I really appreciate you all!**_

_**

* * *

**_

**CHAPTER 13**

It was a titanic struggle, a mental battle of epic proportions between two determined adversaries, each group representing the last of their kind, each knowing that to lose meant the end of everything.

In one corner, the Eternals, everlasting and unchanging, attacking with the only force they knew, the inimical weapons they had manipulated since the beginning of Time, incorporating them into the very essence of their beings - Fear...Pain...Death. Their assault was fuelled with the savage hatred they had nurtured for eons during their long imprisonment in the Void, the overwhelming, crushing desire to exact retribution from the last surviving descendants of Rassilon. Forever alive, and yet dead in every way that mattered, they fought for the power to kill and destroy, the freedom to shatter the Universe into broken pieces for their own twisted lusts and entertainment.

And in the other corner, the Time Lords, the last Children of Gallifrey, lonely remnants of an ancient and arrogant race, a billion years of racial superiority and dominance ingrained in their blood. Six hearts beating in perfect synchronicity, three powerful minds joined in absolute accord. The three who lived, when the rest of their once-proud civilisation had died in the decadence and corruption of the Time War; each of their souls immeasurably different and yet each sharing the obstinate will to survive in the face of all odds. Transfigured by the god-like energy of the Huon Particles, they fought for life, for the universal right to exist, to see and breathe and hear and taste, to learn and grow and love - a prerogative both transcendental and inviolate.

Thanatos, Deimos and Odyne attacked with all the blackness they could muster, trying to break the union which opposed them, trying to drive back the inundation of golden power which was slowly but surely reclaiming the swarm of nanogenes. Wave after wave of vile depravity assailed the Time Lords from all sides, rank and diseased with malefic power. Poisonous thoughts and putrid reminiscences slammed into the pulsing light of their mind-meld, a filthy pestilent corrosion designed to rend and tear and separate. Again and again, the Eternals struck, their hatred passionately needing to destroy.

But the Time Lords stood firm. They did not even need to fight, they merely existed, absorbing and negating every devastating attack, each blast of sizzling power sinking harmlessly into them, like drops falling into a bottomless bucket which contained countless other drops. Their combined awareness slowly but steadily advanced through the psionic circuitry of the ship, gradually wresting control from the increasingly frenzied Eternals.

Watching in the TARDIS, Jack and Amy saw the gossamer filaments of gold threading through the ebony blackness of the nanogenes, unfurling rapidly like the tendrils of a germinating plant, the darkness beginning to shrink back from the lambent light. Many of the sub-atomic robots had already reverted to the glowing amber-coloured points of light Jack remembered as their natural state, swirling and buzzing alongside their obsidian cousins within the confining cylinder.

"They're doing it!" Jack cried. "They're winning!"

Amy clutched his arm tightly with excitement, her finger-nails digging unnoticed into his skin.

"Come on, Team Time Lord!" she exclaimed fervently, her eyes bright with hope.

Cocooned deep within the mind-meld, Tejana felt the influx of Huon energy changing as they shaped it to their need. No longer slow-flowing and molten, it now ran swiftly, singing and burning through their veins. A tiny part of her, far away and hidden, perceived the escalating danger, recognising the increasing dominance of the ancient energy, the minute but significant decline in their mental control. But the rest of her rejoiced in the sweet, seductive song of power. She felt as if together they had absorbed the entire Universe – that somehow they _were _the Universe. The blistering heat of a myriad suns, the cool magnificence of the lunar satellites, the warm velvet cloth that was space, the sparkling gems that were the stars, the planets pulsing with life and activity, all encompassed within the vast consciousness she shared with the Doctor and the Master.

Desperately, the Eternals searched for cracks in the mind-meld, avidly seeking breaks and fissures they could exploit to separate and destroy their enemies. But there were none. The mental amalgam between the three Time Lords was much more than just a psychic link, more even than the infusion of transcendent Huon energy. The personal bonds between them had existed for centuries, complex and intertwined, something that the emotionless Eternals could never understand or combat.

The Doctor and the Master, once the very closest and best of friends, only to become the most bitter of enemies. Equal and opposite, fighting forever among the constellations, the enmity of the ages, everlastingly tied together, neither willing to end it, neither able or wanting to imagine the Universe without the other.

The Doctor and Tejana, father and daughter, a bond of blood and bone and flesh. A stormy relationship, sorely tried and tested with the advent of the Time War, but grounded in a deep love and mutual respect which would always endure, no matter what.

And the Master and Tejana, an undefined, unexplainable connection, but there all the same. Whatever had come into being between them in The Matrix, it was a strong and inescapable link which continued to draw them together.

The three of them fit together seamlessly like pieces of a puzzle, their triangle of interweaving relationships tied even more closely by the searing power of the Huon energy, impregnable to every outside attack.

But the Eternals would not give up. After so many millennia of hatred and yearning, defeat was inconceivable to them. Blast after blast, faster and faster, in accelerating frenzy, they flung rage and defiance and unmitigated malice at the Time Lords.

Although the combat was on a mental level, the outward manifestation of the extreme shocks of psychological power, transmitted by the psionic technology, began to take a toll on the ship. Huge tremors began to shake the flight deck, the dazzling white floors and walls quivering. A fine mesh of cracks trickled up one of the beautiful support pillars, spreading and growing until the column exploded with a scream of shattered crystal, a host of prismatic fragments scattering across the floor.

Inside the TARDIS, Jack and Amy were forced to grab on to the console and hold on for dear life as the time machine juddered and reverberated in concert with the exterior tremors. Staring at the view screen in mesmerised horror, they saw the gleaming floor of the flight deck begin to fracture and gradually break apart.

"They're destroying the ship! We'll all be killed!" Amy gasped in terror.

"Just shut up and hold on!" Jack gritted out. "_Come on_, Doctor, bring it home!"

Three quarters of the nanogene holding tank now glowed golden, the vilely mutated robots hopelessly outnumbered by a healthy multitude. The Eternals redoubled their efforts, but the Time Lords were an obstruction they could not breach. By now, each failed blow was costing them more and more of themselves, their argent light eroding and thinning, growing fainter moment by moment as their attacks grew ever more profligate and reckless.

"Surrender, Thanatos," warned the unearthly three-toned voice from the Doctor's mouth. "Your own hatred is destroying you."

"Never!" the Eternal screamed. "Once before we yielded to the Time Lords and were cast out into The Howling, but never again!"

And again they struck and yet again, unable to concede, unable to yield, their power ebbing and diminishing in an unforgiving tide.

The cascade of energy uniting the Time Lords had gone beyond hot now - it was searing, boiling, flaming through the psychic link like a river of igneous lava. Bending it, twisting it to their combined will, they poured it into the cylinder of nanogenes, inexorably overwhelming the last few black remnants until only a shimmering golden glow remained.

The Eternals fell back, their evanescent light guttering and flickering, their last reserves of energy fully spent. Around them the ship began to settle, the violent shuddering stabilising until the room was steady again. It was over.

Jack and Amy relaxed their hold on the console and cheered and danced on the glass floor like children, their jubilant whoops echoing around the TARDIS control room.

Outside, in perfect unison, three Time Lord heads swivelled to survey their defeated enemies.

"Sentence has been passed," the Doctor pronounced. "Now judgement will fall."

"No!" Odyne screeched. "I won't go back! _I can't go back_!"

"Sentence has been passed. Now judgement will fall," came the implacable answer.

"Doctor!" Thanatos howled. "Please, I beg of you! Have pity! We will do anything you ask of us, but do not return us to the wilderness of The Howling. _Have pity_!"

There was a long silence as three pairs of eyes regarded the grovelling Eternals. For a moment, Thanatos began to hope. The Eternals had learned much of the Doctor from the Master's mind. They knew that pity was one of the fool's most defining characteristics. Surely he would grant them mercy...

"We are the last of the Time Lords..." the Doctor rasped, the three unrelenting voices resounding eerily from his throat. "_We have no pity_."

Inside the TARDIS, Jack stopped celebrating, his face turning pale as he heard the Doctor's words.

"What?" Amy demanded. "What's the matter?"

"It's starting to go wrong," he said harshly. "That sounded more like a Dalek than a Time Lord. The Huon energy is beginning to burn through their defences. They're running out of time."

Even as they watched, they saw the faintest tinge of black beginning to fray the edges of the bright golden corona of Huon energy, an ominous shadow slowly beginning to reach inward towards the three Time Lords with hungry hands.


	14. Chapter 14

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Hi all – thanks for your kind messages regarding my infernal writer's block – am pleased to report I think I have come out the other side, woo hoo!**_

**_As always, big thanks to my reviewers for the last chapter: _**_**Aietradaea, soro1010, xxTeam-Masterxx, Omniac and Strange and Sad Angel! Hope you all have an amazing weekend.**_

_**

* * *

****CHAPTER 14**_

The infusion of Huon particles was complete, the catalysis of power at its absolute zenith. As had been prophesied, it was time.

_The three who remain must stand as one in the Portal of Eternity, lest the Universe and all within it fall into shadow forever more... _

The task should have been impossible. Since the High Council of Time Lords had been destroyed and Gallifrey itself reduced to dust, inter-dimensional travel had become unattainable, the barriers between the parallel worlds virtually unbreachable. But the Huon particles were beyond ancient, older than Time itself, uncoerced by the constraints of reality. Reaching into the sprawling universe encompassed by their amalgamated consciousness, the Time Lords adeptly wielded the primordial energy to rip open the dimensional wall, dragging wide a conduit into The Void within their own bodies.

Within the nimbus of golden power, Jack and Amy saw their figures begin to glow with a rippling white light, undulating like water, until all their physical characteristics were completely obscured and they appeared only as three vaguely humanoid outlines composed entirely of dimensional energy.

"They've opened the gateway to The Void," Jack said thankfully. "It's nearly over now."

"The Portal of Eternity, just like the prophecy said," Amy murmured, her eyes wide. "But listen...what's that awful noise?"

A screeching wail had begun to ululate throughout the flight deck, growing louder and more ear-piercingly stridulent every second. Jack and Amy were forced to cover their ears against the sound, as a maelstrom of wind seemed materialise from nowhere and hurl its way around the room.

"The Time Winds are blowing through the Portal from The Void," Jack yelled. "No wonder The Eternals call it 'The Howling'!"

The Eternals were cringing in gibbering terror, trying to back away from the three radiant figures facing them. But there was to be no escape. Thin, roiling strands of a smoke-like substance appeared in the air surrounding them, coiling around their evanescent limbs like a spreading vine, drawing them inescapably back towards the Time Lords.

"What's happening to them?" Amy shouted.

"It's Void Stuff," Jack responded at equal volume. "A type of background radiation that clings to anything that's been in The Void. Once a full breach is opened into The Void, it will pull anything back in that has Void Stuff clinging to it!"

"_Sentence has been passed. Now judgement will fall..." _came the eerie three-tone voice. "_Fear...we embrace you._"

"NO!" Deimos shrieked in abject anguish. "I beg you, nooooo!"

But the shimmering figure that had once been the Master stepped forward, the rippling white light engulfing the screaming Eternal, absorbing him inexorably into The Void.

"_Pain...we embrace you_."

Without hesitation, Tejana's halo of light encircled Odyne and the Lady of Pain followed Deimos back into hell.

"_YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS, TIME LORDS_!" Thanatos roared. "_WE WILL RETURN AND THEN THERE WILL BE NOWHERE SAFE FOR YOU_! _I SWEAR, YOU WILL PAY_!"

"_Death, we embrace you," _came the unrelenting, emotionless reply.

Advancing, the luminescent Doctor enveloped the only remaining Eternal, banishing him irreversibly through the dimensional teleport to join his companions.

"Get ready, Jack," Amy warned, her voice laden with tension.

Jack needed no warning – he was already poised, waiting, his hand on the lever.

The white dimensional energy flared in one last pulse of illumination and then the Time Lords slammed shut the Portal of Eternity, barring the way into The Void forever more. Haunting silence fell abruptly across the room as the caterwauling Time Winds died away. The intense, pearly light evaporated, the three humanoid figures becoming evident once more.

But even as the humans watched, the lurking blackness edging the golden aureole of Huon particles began to expand, reaching further and further inward like malignant amorphous tentacles.

* * *

Fire swept into Tejana as if every drop of her blood was made from oil and her flesh from the driest of kindling. It erupted in her hearts, blazed in her lungs, cindered all her vitals. The cataclysm howled through her body, the very marrow of her bones burning and running like volcanic magma.

Somewhere far away, through the sea of flames raging through the mind-meld, she thought she could hear the Doctor, urging them to hold on, urging them to fight back the surge of power. Tejana tried to focus on his voice, tried to cling to the last element of sanity within the inferno, but it was too late. She was swept away into the swelling torrent of Huon energy. It was too strong, too intoxicating, for any of the three Time Lord minds to contain or control. Their last mental barriers faltered and were finally overwhelmed, incinerated by the awesome conflagration.

Ecstasy blazed through the psychic link, a triumphal rapture, no longer contained by the restraining willpower, their combined thoughts flowing together in a mindless song of exultation and insanity.

_They were invincible, all-powerful, unassailable – a god in three parts, mighty and omnipotent. _

_They were the Time Lords Victorious. _

_The Laws of Time were theirs. Now, the Universe could be re-ordered. At their command, Time could be rewritten. Reality itself would conform to their will._

_The Time War would be erased, all of the suffering and pain it had caused never to have existed. All the races which had been devastated, all the planets which had been destroyed, all the people who had died, they could all be restored, the Universe set to rights once more._

_Gallifrey, the Shining World of the Seven Systems, would once more take her rightful place in the heavens. Under their hand, a new Time Lord Empire would be established, a golden age lasting one hundred trillion years. They would be the masters of Creation, as was only fitting._

_With the ultimate power flowing through them, they could reduce entire planets to dust, extinguish the stars, create and destroy as they chose..._

_None would be permitted to stand against them. All would obey. All who threatened the new order with chaos would be annihilated. All who had opposed the Time Lords, or those they protected, would perish - Cybermen, Sontarans, the 456, the Zygons, the Silurians, the Sycorax and countless others..._

_But most of all, the Daleks. Every last stinking Dalek would be wiped from the sky. Every last Dalek would be made to scream a hundred times for every scream they had forced from their victims. Every last Dalek would be exterminated, until the entire race was wiped from the collective memory of the Universe. There would be no mercy, no pity, no compunction. _

_They had overcome the Eternals, but this was just the beginning..._

_

* * *

_

"The Eternals are gone, Jack," Amy said urgently, her eyes glued to the scanner screen. "Reverse the particles, _now_!"

Behind her, she heard Jack swear savagely. Whirling around, she saw him wrestling with the lever he was supposed to pull.

"What's the matter?" she demanded, a sick feeling in her stomach as she read the consternation in his face.

"Damn...thing...won't...budge!" Jack gritted out, pulling with all his might.

"_What?_ No, that's not possible!"

Running around the console, she joined him, throwing all her weight behind his on to the lever. Together, they fought to drag the handle down, but it would not be moved.

"Oh no," she breathed. "This can't be happening! What are we going to do?"

"Keep pulling," Jack ordered tersely, moving rapidly to another bank of instruments.

"But..."

"Just keep pulling!" he repeated sharply, starting to flick some switches. "I think this is my fault."

Still forcing her whole weight down on the unresponsive lever, Amy shot him an incredulous glance. "What do you mean, your fault? What did you do?"

"I didn't _do _anything. The TARDIS doesn't like me much, that's all."

"She doesn't _like _you?"

"Because I'm immortal, a fixed point in time. She's a time machine. We're basically incompatible."

"Oh, brilliant!" Amy exclaimed sarcastically. "Of all the times for you to finally find the one female in the Universe you're incompatible with, you choose today!"

Jack shot her a glare as he raced further around the console, frantically pressing a series of buttons.

"For her to have me on board...it's like you would feel having a stone sitting in your stomach, very uncomfortable. So what with the Doctor gone and the Huon energy draining out of her, she's reacting by going into emergency shut down."

"So what are you doing now?"

"Trying to find the re-set switch. It's got to be here somewhere. I'm just not familiar with the new TARDIS lay-out!" he snapped. "Keep pulling!"

* * *

_They could sense danger, ripples of peril brushing against the edges of their power. Something threatened them, something intended them harm. This could not be permitted._

_Humans! The two humans in the TARDIS, seeking to reverse the influx, trying to rescind the Huon Particles._

_Pathetic, degenerate, insignificant, meddling little apes..._

_They had to be stopped._

_They had to be DESTROYED._

_

* * *

_

Amy looked up at the view screen again and all the blood drained out of her face.

"_Oh...my...God_!" she breathed in a strangled voice.

Still in perfect synchronisation, the three Time Lords were slowly turning to face the TARDIS. Amy would never forget the horror of that moment as long as she lived. The three figures, two of them once so familiar and loved, had changed beyond all recognition. The golden nimbus of power surrounding them had become polluted by adumbral swirls of darkness, coruscating around them in a frayed and denatured vortex, their faces cast in shadow. But most appalling of all were their eyes. Once so human-looking, they now glowed with a sick emerald green fire which radiated virulent malice.

Amy had come across a multitude of strange things in her travels with the Doctor. Many of them had been frightening or even downright terrifying. But until this moment, she realised that she had never known what fear really was.

All at once, she understood a fundamental, basic truth that many other races across the galaxies had known for millennia. The most dangerous creatures in Creation were not the Daleks, not the Weeping Angels, not the Eternals nor any of the other monstrous would-be contenders.

_The most dangerous creatures in Creation were the Time Lords themselves._

The sense of hideous menace emanating from them was so strong that it was almost tangible. Amy had no doubt that if she and Jack could not deploy the recalcitrant lever, she was going to die horribly.

"Jack!" she screamed. "You'd better do something! You'd better do something NOW!"

Outside, moving in total unison, the three Time Lords took a single step towards the TARDIS.


	15. Chapter 15

**_Author's Note:_**

_**Big thanks to KlinicallyInsaneKoschei and Omniac for two more lovely reviews, you guys are so encouraging!**_

_**Also, a big hi to babybluepineapple, it's always so nice to get a new reviewer and I'm really happy you are enjoying the story!**_

* * *

**CHAPTER 15**

Frantically, Jack ran his hands through his dark hair, his eyes desperately scanning the TARDIS console. So many different instruments, each with a purpose he couldn't even begin to guess at. There was nothing that even remotely resembled the re-set switch he had seen the Doctor use in the old time machine. Maybe the new TARDIS didn't even have one.

* * *

Outside, the hellish abominations which had once been the three Time Lords took another deliberate step towards the TARDIS, their hands twitching and quivering in blood-lust, their murderous intent evident in every line of their corrupted bodies, their faces stretched in fixed maniacal grins of anticipation.

_KILL the humans! _

_First these interfering two and then the rest of their degenerate infestation of a species._

_Butcher them, slaughter them, eviscerate them!_

_Let their red blood run free..._

_

* * *

_

"JACK!" Amy screamed insistently, the panic in her voice ripping at his already raw nerves.

There _had_ to be something he could do. But what? WHAT?

He had come across a multitude of different alien technologies during his lengthy time with Torchwood and had become expert with many of them. But he knew that the complex TARDIS systems were well beyond his understanding or capability. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears, the cold sweat standing out on his forehead.

What would the Doctor do? _What would the Doctor do?_

Then, with the piercing clarity of memory, it came to him, the simplest solution of all. He dropped to his knees on to the glass floor and began to crawl around the console, looking up underneath it.

"Jack, what are you _doing_?" Amy cried, almost in tears. "They're coming! _Oh God, they're coming!_"

It was still there, just as it had been in the old TARDIS, dangling from a hook under the console – the Doctor's mallet. Seizing it, Jack straightened and ran back to where Amy was still wrestling with the lever.

"Are you CRAZY?" she shrieked, realising what he was about to do.

"Percussive maintenance, Doctor-style!" Jack yelled, raising the mallet high above his head. Then, to the TARDIS, "So sorry, old girl, but you left me no choice..._ALLONS-Y_!"

With that, he brought the mallet smashing down on the console with all his strength, just as he had seen the Doctor do many times before when the TARDIS misbehaved.

ONCE...and nothing happened. The lights on the console remained dark, the lever still unresponsive in Amy's hands.

TWICE...still nothing. Nothing. _Nothing_!

* * *

The Time Lords moved closer still, their unholy green eyes glowing with concentrated malice, the black and gold corona of power surrounding them swirling in a bewildering dance of light and shade.

_They would wade in a river of human blood._

_It would flow behind them, lapping at their heels as they strode the stars, mute testament and warning to the rest of the Universe of the savage retribution of the Time Lords._

_They would kill...destroy...ANNIHILATE!_

_

* * *

_

"It's not working!" Amy said, her voice high-pitched with hysteria, her hands battering over and over at the lever. "Come on, you stupid thing! COME ON!"

"Third time's the charm!" Jack exclaimed grimly, his eyes urgently tracking their approaching adversaries on the view-screen.

Down came the mallet...CRASH!

All at once, the TARDIS seemed to give a little shudder, almost like a hiccup. The time rotor quivered imperceptibly and then, like stars appearing in the night sky, the console began to twinkle once more with instrument lights.

Jack nearly passed out with relief. "_OH YES_! Hallelujah!"

He tossed aside the mallet and rushed to help Amy. Together they pulled and this time the lever retracted smoothly, riding down the console as though the problem had only ever been in their imaginations after all.

Under the glass floor, the Heart of the TARDIS began to hum, a deep, almost comforting sound. As if responding to a summons, the first trickle of golden particles began to flow back through the double doors, like children following the Pied Piper, disappearing back into the silver sphere they had originally come from.

On the scanner, they saw the three Time Lords fall to their knees, their heads thrown back and their bodies arched in agony as the Huon energy began to be forcibly extracted from them in a roiling funnel of amber effulgence. The Doctor's mouth opened wide and a horrifying shriek of excruciating pain ululated through the air in a haunting medley of three wailing voices.

Amy shuddered, the hair standing up on the back of her neck at the dreadful sound of the unearthly lament.

"And...COUNTING!" Jack roared. "Twenty eight, twenty seven, twenty six..."

* * *

_Nooooooo! This could not be! IT COULD NOT BE!_

_It was being stolen, the transfiguring power was being drained, denied to them by the abject, worthless little humans!_

_They were the Time Lords Victorious, the three-in-one god, it could not be happening, it was not possible..._

_The pain...ripping, lacerating, mutilating pain...the Huon particles, now so deeply embedded within their bodies, so entwined with their life force, being torn away with brutal, overwhelming force._

_Falling to their knees, knives laying bare their muscles, tortures excoriating their skin, daggers driven deep into the joints of their bones._

_Fighting to hold on to the energy, refusing to let it go, but losing the battle anyway, the mighty pull of the Heart of the TARDIS sucking the life from them in a swelling deluge of golden light._

_Screaming and more screaming, agony upon agony..._

_

* * *

_

Amy and Jack stared at the view screen, aghast at the immeasurable, excruciating torment wracking their friends.

"We're _killing_ them!" Amy shrieked. "Jack, you have to stop!"

Knowing this was impossible, Jack just shook his head, his eyes tortured but resolute, intent on finishing the pitiless countdown, just as he had promised the Doctor.

"Seventeen, sixteen, fifteen..."

* * *

_The mind-meld was weakening, the bonds between them loosening as the energy slipped away. The perfect harmony, the song of exultation they had shared, the complete unity of soul, now descending into chaos and discord._

_A raging tumult of wildly dissonant thoughts jarred through their amalgamated consciousness in a raucous, jangling din, viciously raking through their minds like clawed talons._

_The link was spinning out of control, all clarity gone, just a shrieking, whirling wilderness of fractured images and sound, madly turning and turning as the cracking fissures grew and grew, and the three different personalities began to sunder and separate..._

_

* * *

_

Down below the console, the retreating stream of aurulent Huon energy was disappearing at an incredible rate, subsiding back into the gleaming Heart of the TARDIS as though it had never been, the immense surge gradually waning into a sparkling trickle.

"Six, five, four..." Jack continued to count, positioning his hands in readiness on the two side-by-side levers. "Three...two...one...and _ZERO_!"

With that, he slammed both controls upwards simultaneously. A gentle susurrant sigh whispered from the Heart as the hatch closed in response to his command, fitting itself seamlessly back into the reflective surface of the silver sphere. Flawless once more, it slowly sank back into the tank of blue, oily liquid where it ordinarily resided, vibrating contentedly.

* * *

_The pressure on the psychic link was beyond bearing, the discordant, conflicting, inharmonious turmoil straining the connection to breaking point, a blistering hurricane of violent pandemonium roaring uncontrollably between the triad of joined minds._

_Then, a storm of absolute devastation, a rending, tearing explosion as the mind-meld shattered into infinitesimal pieces. The psychic link was brutally slashed and the three Time Lords were ripped apart, splintering into time and space, flung whirling far away into the cold and dark._

_

* * *

_

Jack and Amy watched them collapse, sprawling to the floor like marionettes with suddenly-cut strings. After that, they did not move, their bodies inert, lying as still as death.

All at once, there was a complete and empty silence in the console room.

Then Amy whispered fearfully, "Are...are they dead?"

"I don't know," Jack responded heavily, his face taut with strain. "The TARDIS emergency program hasn't activated. I'm hoping that means the Doctor is still alive. And if he's still alive, maybe Tejana is too."

"We have to go out there! We have to help them!"

"No!" he snapped. "The Doctor said not to leave the TARDIS under any circumstances! This time we need to do what he says."

She stared at him incredulously. "You can't be serious! We can't just leave them!"

"_Don't you think I want to run out there too_?" Jack demanded fiercely, grabbing her roughly by the shoulders. "I care about them just as much as you do. But we can't help them and we might make things worse. We have to wait."

For a brief moment, Amy glared at him in furious defiance, her mouth drawn tight in a mutinous line. But then her shoulders sagged dejectedly and she gave in.

"All right," she said despairingly. "We'll wait."


	16. Chapter 16

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Thanks so much to soro1010, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei, babybluepineapple, Omniac and Strange and Sad Angel for your reviews, glad you liked it (I love Jack, lol!)**_

_**

* * *

**_

**CHAPTER 16**

She was so cold.

The volcanic eruption of searing fire which had so fully consumed her had been extinguished, leaving in its wake an enveloping blanket of gelid frost; the bones which had been blazing conduits of flame such a short time ago now seemingly sheathed in rigid ice.

And she was so alone.

The harmony of the mind-meld had been so absolute, so all-encompassing. Now that it had been so catastrophically severed, it was as though she no longer remembered how to function as an individual, leaving only a desolate sense of keening loss.

None of her senses appeared to be functioning. She lay enfolded in the eyeless dark, hearing nothing but the oppressive silence, feeling nothing but the biting cold and the desperate loneliness.

_Was this what it was to be dead?_

At first she didn't care. In fact, she was glad to be dead. She was so tired, she just wanted to sleep forever. Anything else was just too much of an effort, her awareness scattered irretrievably far and wide by the cataclysmic mental explosion.

But then, slowly, her consciousness began to reform, the fragmented pieces drifting back gently like thistledown on the wind. Gradually, she became aware of the hardness of the fissured quartz floor under her body. Her hand twitched involuntarily, feeling the slickness of the polished stone under her fingertips.

_So, probably not dead then._

Far away, the sound muffled as though under water, she could vaguely hear someone calling out.

"Tejana? Tejana! Are you all right?"

_Tejana? Yes, that was her name, wasn't it? She was Tejana. Or had been, before..._

"Tejana!"

_The person was beginning to sound more and more worried. Perhaps she ought to try to open her eyes?_

Carefully, she managed to crack open her leaden eyelids. The Doctor's anxious face swam blearily into view. He looked awful, the four livid scratches from Amy's nails standing out starkly against his pale cheek, his eyes hollowed and sunken in his face. However, his perennially cheerful grin remained unchanged.

"You're awake! Are you OK?"

"Couldn't be better," she managed to croak, an extremely patchy and disjointed recollection of events beginning to seep back into her addled brain. She wasn't quite sure exactly what had happened, her memories blotted out by the immense surge of Huon energy. All she could remember clearly was the all-pervading sensation of burning.

She felt the Doctor move away and she realised he had gone to check on the Master. Apprehensively, she tried to raise her head, but her neck didn't seem to want to cooperate.

"Master? Are you OK?" she heard the Doctor ask urgently.

To Tejana's relief, the Master groaned loudly and then gave vent to a long string of colourful Gallifreyan swear words, a large proportion of which were aimed specifically at the Doctor.

"Excellent!" the Doctor exclaimed buoyantly, completely unperturbed. "All's well that ends well, then!"

"Did we do it?" the Master gritted out. "Are they gone? I can't remember much after the Huon energy hit me."

"Looks like it. I'm a bit hazy on the details myself," the Doctor responded, looking around the shambles of the flight deck. "Blimey, must have been some fight, we've wrecked the place. We must have been magnificent. Last of the Time Lords! Absolutely brilliant!"

Tejana tried to sit up, but her head was swimming so much, she gave up and lay back with a groan, staring up at the cracked ceiling. Oh gods, she needed a long holiday – somewhere peaceful, like the Eye of Orion, or the bottom of a very deep ocean somewhere! She loved her father very much, but sometimes she wished he wasn't so damn cheerful about everything. It was odd – she knew she should be glad to be alive, triumphant in their victory. But somehow, now the mind-meld was broken, she just felt hollow and frozen, somehow bereft and very, very alone.

By some means, the Doctor managed to scramble waveringly to his feet, his eyes fixed on the transparent cylinder of gleaming golden nanogenes.

"Ohhhh, we _were_ magnificent!" he exclaimed gleefully. "The nanogene core has been cleansed! Now, if I can figure out how to release it back down into Cardiff, I should be able to reverse most of the damage the Eternals did."

With that, he staggered unsteadily across the room to his TARDIS and disappeared inside, leaving his two companions still prostrate on the floor of the flight deck.

* * *

The Doctor lurched through the double doors of his time machine, dizzily clinging to the door frame for support.

Without warning, Amy threw herself into his arms, kissing and hugging him over and over again.

"Oh, I thought you were dead!" she cried. "Don't you ever, ever do that to me again, or I'll kill you myself!"

"It's all right, Pond," the Doctor replied, patting her back awkwardly. "Everything's all right now."

Then Jack was there, slinging his arm around the Doctor to catch the Time Lord's weight as he began to slip down the wall, his legs going under him.

"Glad you're OK, Doc! What about Tejana? Is she all right?"

"She's fine, Captain," the Doctor reassured him. "You'll need to give her a minute though. For a sensitive empath, breaking a mind-meld suddenly like that can be a very painful shock. She's going to need a bit of space."

Jack looked reluctantly at the door. A faint sense of uneasiness tugged at him. For some reason, he felt as if he should go to Tejana, right now.

But then the Doctor said, "I'm going to need your help to reconnect the TARDIS systems, Jack. We have to free the nanogene core back down into the city. Hopefully, we're not too late to save Cardiff!"

As always for Jack, duty came first. Dismissing the elusive concern to the back of his mind, he assisted the weakened Doctor down the stairs to the lower level of the TARDIS.

* * *

Slowly, the Master managed to lever himself into a sitting position, his attention fixed steadily on the Time Lady lying beside him.

"That was a bit too close for comfort," he remarked, his tone laced with ironic amusement. "After all, I nearly became an insane, ruthless, murdering megalomaniac intent on conquering the Universe. Who'd have thought?"

"Not funny," Tejana replied tartly, her eyes closed in an effort to stop the room spinning around.

Like the Doctor, the Master also struggled to stand upright with some effort.

"Well, I fulfilled my end of the bargain," he growled, looking down at her. "The Sainted Physician has saved the Universe yet again. So, come on, we're leaving, before he decides to try and lock me up in his TARDIS again."

That was enough to galvanise her into a sitting position, swimming head and all.

"_What_ bargain?" she demanded indignantly. "We didn't have a bargain! And even if we ever had, which we_ didn't_, I can't just up and leave with you. I have a life, a job, responsibilities..."

"Oh, come on, Ana!" he retorted. "What's that stupid Earth saying – wake up and smell the coffee? How long do you intend to baby-sit these stunted little apes? The rest of your life, throughout all your regenerations? One day, you're going to get sick of it. You're going to start feeling smothered, trapped by the smallness, the inanity of it all – the same insipid cities by day, the same boring stars every night. And one day, something will happen and you won't be there to save them. You're not doing them any favours, you know, making them rely on you."

Tejana's face went very pale. How did he do that? How did he always _know_? She could hear Jack's voice ringing in her head:

_Ianto and Stephen _died_ because you weren't there...Sometimes I hate you, Tejana, sometimes I just __want to make you pay..._

The Master's eyes narrowed keenly. "It's happened already, hasn't it? I thought so. Ana, you're a Time Lady, the stars are in your blood. You were never meant to waste your life on this stinking hole of a planet."

"It didn't stop you trying to take it over though, did it? _Twice_, in fact!" she shot back stormily. "Anyway, you don't know what you're talking about! I'm not stranded here, I can leave in the Doctor's TARDIS any time I want to!"

"Daddy's little girl!" he jeered. "Trailing after him across the galaxies, begging for the crumbs of attention he throws you when he's got nothing better to do, nothing to save, no other companions to run after! Not exactly Father of the Year, is he?"

That was another hit below the belt and the Master knew it. Unbidden, the bitter recollections struck her, an unwelcome flashback of the times the Doctor had not been there for her.

_The torture and humiliation she had endured alone on Gallifrey when the Doctor had been exiled to Earth; the fact that, once his exile was over, he had never thought to come back for her, only returning to Gallifrey when officially summoned for duty by the High Council; how, when the Daleks invaded Trion, she had been unable to contact him through the psychic link and so Turlough and the rest of her adopted planet had died in fear and pain and horror; how, when she had finally managed to return from E-Space after the end of the Time War, although overjoyed to be reunited with her, he had already found his saviour in Rose, and everything was about Rose, Rose, Rose and he had never even seemed to notice how much his badly damaged daughter had needed him..._

The truth was, the Doctor had never been the perfect parent - he had always had too many demons of his own to conquer. But Tejana had always loved him unreservedly just the same. He was all she had, the centre of her Universe, even when he was so often light years away. And so, when he had let her down, she had always locked the pain and the sorrow deeply inside and had never reproached him for it. In fact, she had never even spoken of it, to the Doctor or anyone else.

It frightened her that the Master could so easily uncover things she had hidden for so long, things noone else had ever seen or understood. She knew that it was possible that this was a residual effect of the mind-meld, but somehow it seemed more than that, as though he could read the very depths of her soul.

"SHUT UP!" she snarled passionately. "Why the hell did you even bother to come back..._Master_?"

He tensed, a look of torment unexpectedly scudding over his features, his expression suddenly vulnerable and uncertain, emotions she had never seen in his face before. For a moment, Tejana was achingly reminded of the innocent child Koschei she had encountered in the long red grass of his memories.

At first she thought he wasn't going to answer at all. But then, with an undercurrent of anguish, he rasped, "The silence...I can't stand the silence. The drums in my head have always been there. And behind the drums, always the other Time Lords, the psychic link with Gallifrey. Now, there's just nothing, a vacuum, a void. I can't...I have to...I need to fill the emptiness. I don't want to be on my own."

Bewildered, Tejana stared at him, trying to gauge whether his suffering was genuine or if this was just another of his manipulative mind games.

His voice tightened. "And it was good between us in The Matrix, wasn't it?"

The look on his face left her in no doubt as to which part of their journey he was referring to. She swallowed convulsively, unwillingly remembering just how good it had been.

"Yes," she agreed softly. "It was good."

He extended his hand to her. "So come with me."

All of a sudden, she felt his mind gently stroke hers again, the soft, erotic touch almost making her moan aloud, a powerful yet subtle reminder that she didn't have to be alone. With a sob of effort, she resisted, pushing him out again. Deep down, she knew this decision wasn't about leaving Torchwood, or Jack or even the Doctor, all of whom would manage perfectly well without her, once they got over the shock of her defection. This was about something else altogether.

"I don't trust you," she said rawly. "I _want _you, but I don't trust you."

His deep brown eyes caught and held hers, compelling in their intensity. "I'll never hurt you, Ana."

And he proffered his hand to her one more time. She looked down at it, still hesitating. He might never harm her physically, but there were many, many other ways to hurt a person, and he was expert in them all. She wasn't sure he could help himself.

_My bad, bad angel..._

She knew that this was her ultimate decision:- carry on with her safe, comfortable life on Earth with Jack and Torchwood? Or throw it all away to take an insane risk with the Master, Gallifrey's most infamous son? Her head told her there was only one possible choice. But deep inside a strange, wild need was insistently and irrefusably pulling her in the other direction.

_Turn left or turn right?_

She took one last wistful glance at the Doctor's TARDIS, the final verse of Tallulah's song playing in her memory:

_And now my dear, I ain't the girl you knew,_

_Cos the angels got Heaven but I get you._

Knowing that there could be no turning back, she put her hand into his.


	17. Chapter 17

_**Author's Note: Hi to Omniac, KlinicallyInsaneKoschei and babybluepineapple - as always, thanks for your reviews, it makes me very happy to know people are still reading and enjoying this, lol! You make me smile!**_

* * *

**CHAPTER 17**

"Jack, round up the other two, would you?" the Doctor called up from the lower level of the TARDIS, where he was busily reconnecting some of circuitry with his sonic screwdriver. "Once I release the nanogene core, this ship will become unstable – I'm not sure how long it will hold together."

Standing on the glass floor of the upper level, Jack glanced up from the cable he was splicing, all at once reminded that Tejana was still outside, alone with the Master. Sudden prescient dread struck him, his eyes shooting abruptly to the main view screen, just in time to see her give her hand to the other Time Lord.

With a jolt of horror, Jack heard a mocking echo of his own words from earlier:

W_hich leaves the question – if he's back, just what's in it for him?_

"Oh, no," he breathed, a terrible understanding suddenly dawning in him. Then he was running for the door, his long coat flaring out behind him, his voice escalating to a shout as he went. "NO, NO, NO!"

By the time he skidded to an ungainly halt on the polished floor outside, they had reached the door of the other TARDIS, the Master's arm possessively around Tejana as he ushered her inside.

"Tejana, STOP!" Jack yelled. "You can't! Have you lost your mind?"

For a brief moment she looked back over her shoulder at him, her midnight blue gaze contrite and sorrowful but nonetheless determined. It hurt to leave Jack, she was going to miss him so very much. But there was no explanation she could give him, no excuse he could ever comprehend or accept, so she didn't even try.

"Goodbye, Jack," she said simply.

"You can't! Not with _him_! A madman, a murderer!" Jack howled. "Tejana! _Stop_! TEJANA!"

The last thing he saw before the door closed was the Master's triumphant white grin and his taunting salute. "See ya round, Jackie-boy!"

"_NO! Let her go, you bastard_!"

Too late, he ran forward, only to hear the familiar wheezing, high-pitched whining sound of a TARDIS de-materialising and then they were gone.

Jack turned and charged back to the Doctor's TARDIS. The Doctor was coming up the stairs, heading for the console, assisted by a solicitous Amy. He glanced around in mild surprise as Jack stormed into the room.

"What's all the shouting about?"

"She's gone with him!" Jack snarled in fury.

The Doctor stiffened. "_What_?"

"Tejana's gone with the Master, in his TARDIS!" Jack repeated.

Amy looked up in dismay, her gaze flying to the Doctor's face. For a few seconds, his expression was distant, as though he was listening intently. Then she saw his eyes harden and the muscles in his face tighten.

"I see," he said flatly, his attention returning to the console.

"Is that all you're going to say?" Jack spat incredulously. "We have to go after her! We have to get her back!"

The Doctor kept his eyes averted, a tiny tic pulsing in his jaw. "There's no disturbance in the psychic link. He hasn't forced her. She's exactly where she wants to be."

Something about the unnatural evenness of his tone made Amy eye him nervously. But Jack was too enraged to notice.

"What the hell has that got to do with anything? Goddammit, you're her father, _you have to stop her_!"

That was when the Doctor's self-control snapped. His fist smashed down on the console with a sudden reverberating concussion which made both his companions jump in shock.

"_WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO, JACK_?" he shouted, in a voice like a steel blade, the anger blazing in his eyes. "WHAT? DO YOU WANT ME TO GROUND HER FOR A FEW WEEKS? MAYBE CONFISCATE HER POCKET MONEY? SHE'S AN _ADULT_! SHE MAKES HER OWN CHOICES, WHETHER I LIKE THEM OR NOT!"

Too stunned to speak, Jack and Amy just stared at him, completely taken aback as they realised just how furious he really was over Tejana's decision.

He turned back to the terminal he was working on and began to type rapidly. "She made her own bed," he said woodenly, his voice carefully quiet and expressionless again. "Now she'll have to lie in it."

Jack swore violently and flung himself tempestuously up the stairs towards the door leading to the TARDIS interior and disappeared into the maze of corridors beyond.

The Doctor raised his head and fixed Amy with a piercing gaze. "I suppose you're going to say 'I told you so' ?" he asked coldly.

Normally, Amy would have been only too happy to do so. In the ordinary course of things, nothing pleased her more than to prove the Doctor wrong, especially as it happened only too rarely. But in this case, something in his face warned her not to say a word. She couldn't recall ever having seen him quite this angry - not since the whole Star Whale thing, anyway.

"Erm...no..." she replied placatingly, also edging towards the interior door. "Actually...I was just going to...um...make a cup of tea."

The Doctor nodded tersely. "You do that."

With no better plan in mind, Amy left him alone and began to make her way through the passageways to the kitchen, even though she had absolutely no desire for a cup of tea. There was no sign of Jack, but in the distance, further along the corridor, she could hear a rhythmic smashing noise, accompanied by bitter cursing, as though he was taking his rage out on one of the TARDIS walls.

It had always been apparent that Tejana didn't take Jack's romantic overtures seriously, laughingly writing them off as still more of his habitual flirting. But, listening to the pain and anguish in his voice, Amy suddenly realised that it was not, and never had been, that simple.

_Oh God, _she thought in sympathetic surprise. _Poor Jack._ _He's really in love with her!_

Thinking of the Doctor's anger and Jack's pain, Amy felt her own spurt of outrage towards the absent Time Lady.

_Yeah, thanks for leaving me with this mess to deal with, Tejana! Thanks a whole damn bunch!_

_

* * *

_

In the other TARDIS, Tejana was well aware of the Doctor's fury. She could feel it in the back of her mind, digging in like a razor-sharp fish hook. Watching the Master adjusting the navigational controls on the console, she resolutely shut it out. After all, painful though it was, it was only what she had been expecting when she had made her choice.

Trying to distract herself, she gazed around the room with a shiver of distaste. Nothing had changed since she had last stood here, facing Rassilon in the Heart of The Matrix, side-by-side with the Master. The prehistoric-looking console, the stone walls, that awful throne...

Slowly, she walked over to the huge stone chair, running her finger along one of the arms. All at once, the horrifying memories came rushing back in a sickening flood, almost choking her.

_Rassilon's ranting tirade; the blast from his gauntlet striking the Master; Gallifrey in flames, burning, burning, burning, so much pain, suffering, death and destruction; the Master lying broken on the floor of the TARDIS; the anguish of being forced to leave him behind; the long, grief-filled months thinking he was dead..._

"What's the matter, Ana?" his voice said nearby, startling her out of her morbid thoughts. Looking up, she realised he had come to stand close beside her.

"Having second thoughts already?" he demanded, his eyes narrowed warily. "Want me to take you back to Handsome Jack?"

She shook her head, not feeling up to sparring with him. "It's this room, this throne...after everything that happened in The Matrix, it all gives me the creeps."

"Easy fixed," he shrugged nonchalantly, his tense expression relaxing at her reply. "We'll stop off somewhere and do some block transfer computation, jettison the throne, redesign the entire interior architecture to whatever you want. Only, not coral, OK? I'm a bit over the whole coral thing."

Tejana had to smile. She had never understood the Doctor's predilection for coral herself.

She felt rather than saw the Master's gaze shift to her mouth, his eyes becoming suddenly intent. Unexpectedly, he reached around to the nape of her neck and carefully pulled away the pins holding her heavy coil of hair tightly in place, watching in satisfaction as the mass of dark curls poured down her back.

Then he slowly leaned forward, his breath warm and tantalising against her skin as he murmured in her ear, "Until then, maybe I can think of something to take your mind off it."

Suddenly she was finding it difficult to breathe, both her pulses becoming increasingly erratic, prickles of heightened awareness running down her spine. Gently, he placed his hand flat across her upper chest, his eyes closed in pleasure as he felt the double heartbeat thudding powerfully there.

"Aaaah, there it is..." he muttered, his voice rough with a strange kind of relief. "The sound of the drums. One...two...three...four, one...two...three...four, one...two...three...four..."

Sliding his hands to her hips, he sat down on the wide seat of Rassilon's throne, urgently pulling her with him, until she was half-sitting, half-lying across his lap.

"Now then, my beautiful Ana," he said huskily, fingers buried in the tangle of her hair, his mouth lowering to hers. "Show me how much you want me."

And, as he had promised, in the surge of white heat that blazed between them, she didn't think of anything except him for a long, long time.

* * *

With a final flick of a switch, the Doctor completed the alignment of the TARDIS systems with the circuitry of the Psionic ship and took control of the nanogene core. Seething and churning, the suddenly-released swarm of sub-atomic robots boiled out of the confining cylinder, down through the nucleus of the ship and out into the Earth's atmosphere, streaming down into Cardiff in a vast, sparkling membrane, shining like the tail of a comet.

Slowly, the filthy black expanse of mist enclosing the city began to glow with an almost heavenly golden light as the tiny nanogenes began their healing work, their natural purpose restored.

Up above, on the ruined flight deck of the Psionic ship, the blue police box faded in and out and then de-materialised, heading back for the Torchwood Hub.


	18. Chapter 18

_**Author's Note:**_

_**OK folks, this is the final chapter of my story – more of an epilogue, really, I suppose :0)**_

_**The rest, as they say in the classics, is another story and shall be told another time!**_

_**I have thoroughly enjoyed writing this (apart from a few rough patches in the middle) and I would like to thank every single person who took the time to write me a review (especially people like Omniac and Strange and Sad Angel who reviewed nearly every chapter!) I doubt I would have finished it without all of you, so thanks so much!**_

_**It would be great if people could write me one last review now that it is all finished, especially the people who have been silently following – I would love to know if you enjoyed it!**_

_**Off now to write a bit more on my Doctor Who/Life on Mars crossover fic, Visiting Mars, which I have been sadly neglecting. So ciao for now!**_

* * *

**CHAPTER 18**

Gwen Cooper stirred sleepily and slowly opened her eyes. Expecting to find herself in her own comfortable bed, she was completely disoriented for a moment. Instead of her soft pillow, a hard glossy surface supported her head.

With a start, she sat bolt upright, realising that she was sitting at her kitchen table, still littered with the remnants of a half-eaten breakfast. Her husband, Rhys, was seated beside her, his body still slumped across the surface of the table, his head mere inches from his congealing plate of cold toast, the handle of his coffee mug still in his hand. The sound of low, gentle snores rumbled serenely from deep in his chest.

The long shadows of afternoon stretched languorously across the tiled kitchen floor, softly beginning to blur into the half-light of dusk.

_What on Earth...? It had been nine thirty in the morning. Surely they couldn't both have fallen asleep?_

Suddenly, a piercing wail erupted from the tiny nursery.

_Oh God, the baby!_

Throwing back her chair, she raced into her daughter's room. The baby was sitting up in her cot, her mouth wide open, ready for another scream. However, when she saw her mother's worried face appear over the railing, she gave an adorable, toothless grin and lifted her arms, waiting to be picked up. Gwen seized her and frantically checked her from head to toe. Apart from being ravenously hungry, she appeared to be OK. In fact, she was better than OK – the slight fever and runny nose which had been evident when Gwen had put her down for her nap seemed to have disappeared, leaving her healthy and happy and rosy.

Holding her close, Gwen realised that she also felt better than she had for a long, long time. She felt completely rested and somehow at peace, as though all the grief and pain she had been harbouring since the 456 had come to Earth had been released.

_What the hell had happened?_

She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 7.30pm. Jack was going to kill her – she had been due on duty at the Hub over three hours ago. That was another strange thing. Where _was_ Jack? Normally, if she was this late to work without contacting him, he would be here kicking the door down.

Hurrying back out to the kitchen, she shook Rhys by the shoulder until he stirred.

"Rhys! Rhys! Wake up! It's nearly dark!"

Rhys sat up, blinking in a confused manner. "What happened?"

"I don't know. For some reason, we fell asleep," Gwen answered tersely. "Something strange is going on. Here, take the baby while I ring Jack."

Tucking her mobile under her ear, she dialled Jack's number while quickly heating a bottle for the baby. There was no reply – apparently Jack's phone was out of range.

Rhys was standing now, still a little befuddled as he looked out the window, the baby cuddled securely in his arms.

"Gwen...look at the sky!"

Abandoning the unanswered phone, Gwen came to stand beside him. Outside, the sun was setting, a blazing ball of fire slowly sinking into Cardiff Bay. But there was no sign of the customary blue and pink and purple and orange sunset palette which usually streaked the Cardiff sky on a summer's evening. Instead, the heavens rippled with pure, molten, gleaming gold - a celestial firmament of haunting, unearthly beauty, stretching on for what seemed like eternity.

Gwen caught her breath in awe and wonder, feeling as though she had miraculously been given a glimpse of paradise.

Rhys looked at her, a beatific look on his face, drawing in a deep, contented breath.

"Some days, it's just good to be alive, isn't it?" he whispered, slipping his arm around her and drawing her close.

* * *

Wilfred Mott was seated on his bed in his room, changing his shirt before tea, when a handful of small, sharp gravel unexpectedly rattled against the window pane. Startled, Wilf jumped to his feet and moved to the window, peering cautiously out between the curtains. Down below on the shadowy street, he saw a slender feminine figure with long, dark hair, standing close to a nearby bus shelter which hadn't been there before.

"Tejana!" he whispered in surprise.

Sylvia, Donna and Shaun were all downstairs in the front room, laughing raucously at the television. Hurriedly, he sneaked down the stairs and slipped out the front door before any of them could spot him.

Tejana watched him cross the road towards her, marvelling that it had only been that morning when she sat with him in the cafe, listening to the unknown, intangible summons in her mind. It had truly been one hell of a day.

"Is everything all right?" he puffed as he drew level with her. "Only, Donna and Shaun are here for tea. She can't see you, she might remember!"

"It's OK, Wilf," she said soothingly. "I'll only be a minute. I promised you I'd come back and I always try to keep my promises. So...I've come to say goodbye."

"Goodbye? What do you mean, goodbye?"

"I'm leaving Earth," she replied calmly. "I'm going to travel the stars again."

Wilf's face brightened. "But that's wonderful! Does that mean you and the Doctor...?"

But at that moment, he got a closer look at her face in the dim light of the street lamp and his voice faltered. The fever-bright eyes, the flushed cheeks, the kiss-bruised lips, the usually-neat hair tumbling around her shoulders – Wilf was an old man and had been around the block a few times. He knew exactly what he was seeing.

"No...not the Doctor..." he said slowly, his shrewd old mind putting it all together. "It's him, isn't it? The Master. That's what it was all about this morning in the cafe. He came back after all, just like that Cult of Saxon said."

"Yes, he came back," she admitted.

"Is he here with you right now?" he asked warily.

Unsure why he was asking, she gave a hesitant nod. "Yes."

Wilf glanced around and raised his voice. "Where are you then? Stop hiding like a coward and show yourself!"

A second dark figure detached itself from the shadows surrounding the bus shelter and came to stand close beside Tejana. Wilfred had no difficulty in recognising the black-clad Time Lord.

"So it's true," he said heavily. "It really is you."

"We meet again, Granddad," the Master drawled sardonically.

"My name's Wilfred Mott – that's Mr Mott to you!" Wilf retorted fiercely. "I want a word with you!"

"Oh yeah?" the Master sneered. "What could you possibly have to say to me?"

"You know what I think of you. You're nothing but a monster, a complete swine. You're not fit to lick Tejana's boots!" Wilf answered bravely. "But for whatever reason, she's chosen to go with you and the Doctor's not here to say it, so I'm going to. You harm one hair on her head, you hurt her in any way and you'll have me to deal with, understand?"

Tejana cringed inwardly at the well-meant but foolhardy threat, fully expecting the Master to mockingly crush the courageous old soldier with some of his trademark acid sarcasm.

Instead, to her surprise, he merely narrowed his eyes and said evenly, "I'll keep it in mind, old man."

Hastily, before things could escalate any further, she brushed her lips against Wilfred's cheek.

"Goodbye, Wilf. Thanks for everything."

"Goodbye, Tejana," he replied sadly. "You take care now."

As he watched, the two Time Lords vanished back into the darkness. Before long, there came the unmistakable noise of a TARDIS de-materialising and the out-of-place bus shelter began to fade in and out, prior to disappearing altogether. Belatedly, Wilf realised that it had been the Master's TARDIS all along.

Dejectedly, he made his way back across the road to his own front door. But before he could reach it, a young woman with bright red hair threw it open, calling to him in a loud, strident voice.

"Oi, Gramps! What are you doing out here in the dark? Your tea's on the table and that space show you like is on the telly. Load of old rubbish, I reckon, space aliens and such, but whatever floats your boat, I always say!"

Her grandfather smiled at her fondly. "Coming, Donna, my love."

"Well, hurry up then, your pork chops will get cold," she answered over her shoulder, retreating back into the warmly-lighted living room.

Wilf took one last glance at the twinkling night sky, thinking of the two TARDISes spinning around up there, in the endless reaches of space and time. He had always said a little prayer for the Doctor whenever he looked up at the stars. Now he would say one for Tejana too.

"I hope you know what you're doing, sweetheart," he murmured fervently.

With a sigh, he went inside to his family and closed the heavy front door.

Far, far above, the empty Psionic ship finally exploded into a billion flaming fragments, falling and falling until they impacted with the Earth's atmosphere, sending a spectacular spray of beautiful shooting stars cascading across the darkness, only to fade into nothing, leaving the song of the Universe undisturbed.

**THE END**

* * *

**_Author's Note _**

**_For the sequel to this fic, please read "So Many Things Should Have Been Different"._  
**

**_SUMMARY: ___********_Tejana is now travelling with the Master, despite the odds stacked against them. But when they are forced to return to Earth, the past comes back to haunt them. Will it destroy their future...or does the Universe even still have a future?_**  



End file.
